Life after Death
by broken and forgotten
Summary: POLL CLOSED! How has life been in the caves after Wanda has been reborn? What conflicts are going through Sunny's mind? How will Kyle react to an unwanted love triangle? How is Lily coping with Wes' death? ... One clumsy accident in the caves changes all.
1. Clumsy

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**DISCLAIMER:**

**Stephenie Meyer owns everything, sadly even Ian O'Shea and Jasper Hale.**

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Chapter 1 - Clumsy

_**Wanda**-_

It was still dark when my eyes flittered open. It was cold. _Too cold_. I could see the glow of the morning sun slowly rising through the man-made holes of my cave. It was still early and I had wash up duty today, the thought made me disgruntled. I rolled over and pulled myself into a ball, expecting one of Ian's arms to be there by my side, as he tends to sprawl when he sleeps. _Nothing_. I shot up and abruptly turned on my side. _Still nothing_. The mattress was empty, except for me and a slightly crumpled thin sheet of fabric I called our blanket. "Uh," I groaned, rubbing my back. The sudden movement just then must of jerked a muscle.

Pet's body aggravated me. I've taken Melanie's strong muscles for granted too long and now I'm restricted to doing nothing. Pet rarely done any exercise, let alone stretching- my muscles were weak and stringy. Still rubbing my back, I gingerly slid off the mattress and quickly hobbled to the door. I carefully stuck my foot out in the opening and slid myself out, gently closing the door behind me- I didn't want to disturb anyone.

The caves were quiet. I could hear gentle snoring and soft breathing all around me. _Sound does travel in the caves_, I thought. I slowly headed down the right tunnel, headed for the main cave, where the food is usually served. Shadows were flickering in and out of the morning glow in the cave ahead. I slid against the wall and crept closer.

"….. don't think that we…… she's new here…. by herself!". I froze. Kyle's voice always spiked fear into my body. Pet had never been scared in all her life, and my body took it harshly. My heart rate quickened and my palms began to perspire. "…. need it. I don't….. break, she's having…. time!" I froze and pushed myself against the cave walls even further, heading into the darkness. _Ian_. The voices were spoken barely above a whisper, but I can very clearly detect the anger in his tone. _Too clearly_, I just want to erase it from his voice. It was close and I could almost touch the rage. It sparked something deep inside me, I wanted to interfere, to stop whatever's making Ian angry, to erase it completely- until

"Look mate, I know she's just beginning to fit in, but she's not _useless_! She's one of _them_! They trust her!". _Jared_. _Who are they talking about……. is it me?_

There was some quick shuffling of the gravel on the ground, and a few grunts. I jumped into the light glow of the cave room. _Silence_.

"Wanda? Honey, what are you doing out of bed?" Ian asked- surprised.

I didn't answer. Kyle was on top of Jared, Ian had hid hands over Kyle's shoulders, and Jared's arm was bent backwards, obviously paused in the act of going in for the punch- and they were all looking at me. They weren't the only ones. I gasped. Melanie was there too, lying down against a bench across the cave with Doc leaning over her. Sunny was there too, covering her face, and Jeb was standing by them with his gun cocked and ready- ready to stop the fight. They too were looking at me, but that wasn't what caught my eye. On the floor next to Mel, were two long and thick tree branches, with a long piece of cloth tied between it, covering the whole space. _A stretcher_, I thought.

On that stretcher was some lumps covered by another sheet of fabric, all I could see- protruding from underneath the fabric was a pale wrist, and a face. Lily's face. I could feel my body turn cold. But before I could move, or to let out a scream, a wrist wrapped around my waist, constricting my body together, and another had shoved a cloth over my face- a familiar smell of raspberries, and everything faded in a bright glowing blue.

___________________________________________________________________________

_**Lily**__- (__24 hours earlier)_

"_They'll be back soon!" _

_I laughed. Wes wrapped is arm around me and lifted me off the ground. _

"_Woah!" I exclaimed, kicking the air._

_He put me back to the ground and planted a soft kiss on my cheek. "Aww… that's adorable" I heard someone say._

_It was a bright day and everyone was in the game room. Relaxing away the stress. Everyone always gets nervous when people leave the safety of the caves- but supplies were running low, so a raid was the inevitable. They've only left just last night, but emotions were strung high. Of course, Jeb took the reigns and now we're all here halfway through a soccer game._

"_Hey, if you don't stop that we'll never finish the game and I'll be scarred!" joked Jamie._

"_Muesli bars!" Lucinda called from the entrance of the game's room. She and Paige had left to retrieve us some snacks. _

"_Oooh!" laughed Jamie, and he ran off to retrieve some. Brandt laughed and he and Aaron raced each other to the food. Jeb, Maggie, Sharon and Andy were lying on the floor, breathing hard after half an hour of competitive soccer._

_Me and Wes were alone in the centre of the games room. He wrapped his arms around me and nuzzled his face in my neck. I felt my face turn red, but I held him close. _

_He looked down and pulled my chin up, and before I knew it, he was lightly kissing me. The noise and light chatter of the crowd blurred away into the distance until all I can hear is his and my breath. He pulled away and looked me intently in the eyes. _

"_I, Wes love you Lily and always have," he whispered into my ear. Those words pierced straight through, and into my heart. _

"_I know, and I, Lily love you too Wes," I told him. And he pulled me into a tight embrace and my world all melted away as he kissed me again._

"_Hey Wes!-" Brandt called over "we saved you and Lily some, so stop that and eat something before my teams flogs yours!"_

_I laughed and pulled him over to the crowd._

I woke up wrapped into a ball and covered in cold sweat. The air was cold and musty. I turned on my side and stared at the empty mattress across the cave. I didn't realize I was crying until the droplets of my tears ran down my face and dripped onto my arm. I pulled myself up and let the tears flow.

"_What's that sound?" Sharon asked. I dropped the dough that I was kneading onto the bench and strained my ears. There was a slow rumbling in the distance. It got louder and loader by the second. Footsteps and loud chatter was entering the kitchen. "What's going on?" I asked Brandt, who came running into the cave room at a startling speed._

"_Stop!" he shouted at us. I froze. Maggie and Sharon froze too. _

"_Turn off the ovens, turn everything off!" He shouted, worry and fear polluting his voice. _

_We hastily turned off everything. Just at that moment Lucinda arrived into the kitchen, flustered, hand in hand with Freedom and Isaiah. She looked wide eyed at Brandt and he nodded. "Noooo…" she moaned, sinking onto the steps at the entrance of the cave. Freedom and his brother snuggled close to their mum, scared that something was wrong with her. "I'll go get Jeb.." Brandt said hurriedly before sprinting down the south corridor._

"_Lucinda? What's going on?" Sharon asked in a low voice. I hurriedly scraped off any remaining dough on my hands and rushed over to them. Maggie and Sharon were both on my tail, with the same worried expression marring their face. If this wasn't such an important moment I would've laughed my head off because both the mother and the daughter looked like twins._

"_It's a car. The same black one that Jared and Aaron saw on the motorway just a couple of weeks ago…." her voice broke off as the tears began to stream down her face. She held her boys even tighter to her side. "Mama, what's wrong?" Isaiah asked wiping her tears away as Freedom stared at her with huge eyes. "I don't know baby… I just know..". Maggie pulled Sharon under her arm and she too sunk to the floor with worry in her silent eyes. _

_Wes, Wes, Wes… Where is he? I thought. I stood up and nearly sprinted down the south corridor after Brandt._

"_What are you doing? Lily come back!!" I heard Sharon call. I ran even faster down the dark corridor- but halfway down the boys ran up to meet me. Every single one; Wes, Jeb, Aaron, Brandt, Andy and Heath, all rushed pass me, Jeb with our gun. "Hey wait!" I called. Wes slowed down and pushed me into the side of the corridor wall, into the darkness. _

"_Lily, you stay here. You stay right here okay? Will you promise me that?" He looked into my eyes intently and stared, waiting for my answer. I didn't answer. I realize I was shaking in his arms and that I was already crying. "No.. Wes.. No… wherever you go, I go… Death can't break us apart… No…" I choked into his shoulder. He pushed me back into the wall and said in a commanding voice. "I love you Lily, and I always will, but I'm not letting you go out there. Stay here. I won't live knowing that I've put you in danger" he choked. " I love you too Wes.." I said. "But I don't want you to go…." I said selfishly. "I've got to. You stay here." And he ran off._

"_Wait!" I called, but Wes had already crossed into the main cave. I ran after him. When I reached the kitchen I saw Sharon and Maggie, with Lucinda's boys staring at the eastern tunnel, so I ran through there. When I got to the next opening cave, I saw flickering shadows- so I hurried up. _

"_You're not welcome here, but if you promise to come in peace, we will treat you with the same respect," I heard Jeb's voice._

"_Aha, and what exactly are you aliens going to do to me? I'm not scared you know, but hey, it looks like I've just hit the jackpot- a whole hive of you here!" That was different. An arrogant female voice taunted Jeb. Then she laughed._

"_Why are we being nice to it? It obviously invaded our planet, and like you said, she's not welcome here!" Brandt's voice- scared and irritated._

"_She's a guest here too you know, and my house my rules," Jeb replied._

"_Pfft, I don't need you generosity-" her voice darkened when she said it, "I look after myself. So I think you know who I'm looking for?.... You might know her. She goes under the name Wanderer, but maybe it's Melanie Stryder here."_

_I peeked around the corner. I saw all the boys standing around the entrance of the cave, but then I saw her. She was petite, dressed from black to toe, and she had a very smug look on her face. Lucinda was here too, she was standing next to Jeb and her eyes kept on flickering back and forth from his gun and- my heart stopped beating, the Seeker's gun. I gasped. The noise was the only sound you can hear in the caves and her eyes flickered to meet me. I knew what was going to happen before it did. So did Wes._

"_Get out of the way!" he screamed, and shoved himself in front of me. The sound was deafening. "Noooooo!!!! Wes!!" I screamed. His body fell to the ground with a deafening crack. There was lots of noise and commotion, but I paid it no mind. I knew instantly when I looked at his lost face, that I'd lost him. I could hear the Seeker screaming in the background but she seemed far away. Wes looked peaceful, but then everything blurred, my tears tainting my vision………………_

_Doc had said so himself. He was gone. No alien medicine would work. Not even when I single handedly poured a whole bottle of Heal onto his chest. He was gone. My love, my life…… Wes, Wes, Wes, come back………_

When my tears finally dried out, I just sat there and stared at the ceiling. I'm sure I've just missed breakfast but it doesn't bother me. I wasn't hungry. I couldn't feel anything. I never felt anything. Not since the…… all I could feel was pain, that and loneliness.

There was a knock on the door, it interrupted my mourning. Trudy poked her head into my cave. "Lily honey, I saved you some….." She saw my face. She walked over and gently sat down on the mattress next to me. She wrapped her arms around me and let me cry myself out. When I was done she stroked my hair and started consoling me but I wasn't listening. "….. he wouldn't want you to starve yourself. No, Wes was a great guy and you can't let him down." It was the first time I've heard anyone say his name around me. It made my heart ache and my body cold. My self-pitying side told me to stay in bed and weep a little bit more, but my better judgment told me that Trudy was right. Wes wouldn't want me to starve. I'd live just for him.

So I hushed Trudy out of my room to get changed. I sighed. I wasn't hungry and I knew if I walked out, I might run into Lacey. She's the last person I want to see. Even though I knew she wasn't the one who…… shot Wes, it was her body. And I will never forgive that body. That body took away my whole life, and worse, it destroyed it completely.

When I entered the dining hall, cave place, I realized that it must be sometime pass noon, as everyone was here- enjoying lunch.

"Lily! Hey, we saved you a seat!" Paige called over from across the cave.

I turned, Paige, Brandt, Andy and Aaron were sitting by a small table in the far corner of the cave, and they were all smiling at me. I sighed, at least I'll always have my friends. When I finally weaved my way through the crowd, nearly tripping over a stool Jamie Stryder had accidently left in the middle of the path, I realized I was starving.

"Take you time eating, I got soap duty up next and I'd give anything to skip it" I heard Aaron joke.

"Well I got dishes, blergh" I told them, digging into my eggs with much gusto.

"Wher've you been all morning?" Ian asked me, swiveling on his stool from the other bench to face me. I realized that Jared, Melanie, Wanda and Jamie were all looking at me too.

"Oh, I slept in." I lied, keeping my eye contact with Ian. I was good at deception and I knew it.

I turned and finished my eggs in silence. " Anywho, I don't want to be late for ploughing the eastern field, Jeb will probably shoot me" Brandt told us laughing. And with that he left. Andy turned around and pecked Paige on the cheek with an "I love you" before he left with Aaron for the eastern tunnel as well. That gesture made my chest ache, as I remembered Wes always did that to me too. I must have been staring really hard at my empty plate because I could feel Paige's eyes on me. I felt her hand brush on my back and her soft, almost apologetic voice say, "Sooo, lets clean up hey?" and I could feel her tug my hand.

When we finally reached the sinks with our dishes is when I realized everyone else was there too, making dinner. Lacey. She was looking at me with her repugnant face, and she had her arms full of dirty dishes too.

"You know what?" I said to Paige loudly "I think I'll head down to the rivers to clean these," and with a swish of my long, thick dark brown hair, I stalked out of the kitchen, arms full of dishes. "What did I do?" I heard Lacey's loud voice ask. "Never mind," was Paige's reply "She just needs time". I lugged the dishes all the way down the corridors. I ran into Sunny and Kyle. "Hey Lily, need some help?" She asked. Sunny was nice, I liked her. I was gonna accept when I noticed how intwined together her and Kyle were. That also made my chest ache. "No, I can handle these," I said, pulling a smile onto my face, and walked past them.

The line for the bathroom, was really long, so I took my chance in the river room. Even though I know that half of it was cracked away, I could still see my way around it because at least some light shone through the holes in the wall. I sat on the edge of the cracks by then entrance and started doing the dishes. Slowly.

The chatter outside was loud and all I wanted was some peace and quite all to myself. So I waited. Finally, everyone was done, and I paced myself. I turn to grab the next load of dishes when I realized they weren't there. That's weird, I though, they were there a moment ago. So I crawled my way over, to where the light doesn't reach, and started to run my hands along the floor of the cave, hoping to find those ever elusive dishes. Still nothing. My hands touched the edge of the cave, and I realized I went to far, so I began to crawl backwards. But there was no ground. "Wha-" I managed to shriek and my body half plummeted into the hot side of the river. Luckily my arms were still holding on. "Help!" I screamed. I manged to slide over a little bit but that movement smashed my side onto a pointy edge of the cave. I could feel the piercing pain and heat coming from my side. That's when I realized that the dishes must of broken away a weak part of the river room by itself, and I crawled right onto it."Argh! Help!" I screamed. My arms were screaming in protest. My whole body ached. I felt dizzy. My arms were slipping, grabbing onto loose stones and pebbles. "No, no, no, no, NO! Omigod! Help me! Someone!" I was screaming into the darkness. No one was coming. I was alone. My head ached and my body numbed over. I blacked out and floated into a bright glowing brown light.

_I was flying, floating deeper into the bright brown light. I felt light, carefree. But also emptiness- I felt empty, and lost._

" _Lily honey? Can you hear me?". Every inch of my body jerked to life. I wanted to see the face that went with that voice so badly. I turned. "Wes….?" I called out into the emptiness._

_A warm touch heated my neck, "I'm here honey, you just need to turn around,"._

_I did as I was told. I'd do anything for that voice. I blinked, my heart beated harder than it had ever beated for weeks. I was staring at the most brilliant shade of brown ever known to mankind. I reached out, to feel his warmth. Nothing. But I could see him bright as day. Dark tousled hair, and sun tanned skinned. He was looking at me with some sort remorse mixed with bliss. He reached out and ran his hand over my cheek and down to my neck, my skin warmed with every touch. I tried to hold him but I seemed to reach right through him. "Wes? What's going on..?" I asked. He didn't reply, he just kept running his hand back and forth between my cheek to my neck. Hours seemed to pass. I didn't mind. I just wanted to drink up every part of him I could. He noticed me looking and smiled. "Lily honey?" he asked._

"_Yes?"_

"_I need you to do something for me, do you think you can do it? For me?" he asked, staring me down with those brilliant chocolate eyes of his._

"_Sure Wes, anything for you," I said slowly, analyzing his face._

"_You, have to promise me that you'll do it though." He said slowly, running his hands through my hair now._

"_Of course," I said, not looking away from his eyes._

_He stepped closer. "I need you to wake up honey. I need you to wake up."_

"_Huh, what?" I asked, still mesmerized in his eyes._

"_Wake up Lily, I need you too wake up,"_

"_Okay…" I said. He stepped closer and blew a strand of hair from my face. Funny- it smelt like grapefruit._

"_No..NO!" I screamed, realizing what's happening. The brilliant brown around me blurred, and faded in and out of sight. Wes stepped even closer to me. "Promise me one more thing?" he asked, wrapping his arms around me. I nodded, tears overflowing from my eyes and down my neck. He wiped them off, leaving trails of fire over my face. "Promise me you'll never forget me?" he asked, his voice breaking. I stared at him, eyes wide. "What? I'll never see you again?" I asked quietly, tears beginning to flow again. "No, Wes, no I'm not going to wake up, I wanna stay with you!" I screamed, my voice breaking. He began to fade away too. The smell of grapefruit. Again. Oh, how I hate that smell. "Promise me?" he asked, fading away into the distance. "I promise," I whispered to him. He smiled at me, fading further into the distance. "I love you Lily," he whispered. "I love you too Wes." I told him. He smiled._

"She's waking up!" Jared's voice breaking the silence. I blinked. The faint glow of the sunrise, filtering through then holes of the main cave was burning my eyes. So I closed it. "Lily? You awake? How much No Pain did you give her?" I heard Ian's voice.

"Loads, she was withering in pain when Jared brought her in this evening, we had to give her some Sleep too, so she'd be quite. We didn't want to scare the others. So we had Brandt and Aaron give them our cover stories while we looked after her in the hospital." Candy, was she here too? Where was she? My side was numb, and tightly wound together, was that the No Pain?

"We used all our No Pain and Heal on her, but nothing's working! She's losing more blood by the minute! We need something more, or we're going to lose her!"

"We need to restock too. Wanda and us can go out on another raid," I heard Jared say.

" Wanda is too well known around these nearby hospitals….. We need someone else.." Jeb's voice. He's here too?

"Hell no! No way, I know what you're thinking and no. We're not going to put Sunny in danger that way! If you want to, you gotta go through me first!" Kyle's voice. Outraged.

I heard crying too, who was crying?

"Don't cry, I'm not letting them…" Kyle's soothing voice faded away.

"Kyle? I think Jeb's right, I mean Wanda's face is too familiar around here. We need Sunny." Melanie's voice said.

"I don't think that we should, I mean, she's new here, and she's scared, and she's all by herself!" Kyle's voice answered, cracking slightly.

"But Kyle, man we need it. I don't want to do this either, but Sunny's had a long enough break, she's having too much, and not really returning anything! Wanda is known around here, and I don't want to lose her, and I'm not being selfish, but Jeb's right this time!"

"You back off, bro!" Kyle's voice was low and menacing.

"Look mate, I know she's just beginning to fit in, but she's not _useless_! She's one of _them_! They trust her!" Jared's voice argued.

I heard shuffling on the ground and a few heavy grunts. But then silence. Only Ian's voice can be heard. "Wanda? Honey, what are you doing out of bed?"

There was a quite gasp, than really quick footsteps and another gasp, but this one out of surprise.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Ian's enraged voice broke the silence "Get off her!"

My head hurt. I was dizzy. I tried to reopen my eyes to see what's happening, but my eyelids were numb. I was fading away… And no one was there to tell me goodbye….

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**_Anywho, that's the end of Chapter 1. I hoped you guys liked it!_**

**_Please review yeah, the good, the bad (preferably good :P), everything!_**

**_Hehe, I'm going to start on Chapter 2 soon... Hopefully will be uploaded by the next week =]_**

**_xx Kate_**

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	2. Stubborn

Chapter 2 - Stubborn

_**Sunny-**_

I could feel the mattress shifting. _Mmm_, I sighed. _Kyle was probably cold_. I could feel our blanket being pulled away from me. I shivered slightly. It gets cold in the caves at night. Thump. I think I just heard footsteps. My mind was still groggy from sleep, and my eyelids just refused to open. The footsteps got fainter and fainter, until I heard them take a turn. Then it got closer and closer until I swear they stopped in front of me.

The blanket was moving again, this time back onto my body. It moved up, and then got lightly tucked underneath my neck and shoulders. My eyelids slowly opened up.

"Kyle?" my sleepy voice asked. My vision was still blurred and all I could make out was his shadow.

"Hey, sleepy." his voice replied gently. "Didn't mean to wake you."

I pulled myself up and squinted at his shadow. "What are you doing up?" I asked softly.

He sat down beside me on the thin mattress. "Ian just came up and told me that Jeb needed to see me." he said, stroking my long black hair.

"What, now? What's the time?" I asked sleepily.

"Jeb's word is law. It must be around, what? 3am?" he joked. I just stared at him silently.

"Aww, Sunny don't be like that, I just didn't want to wake you up." he said leaning over to kiss me lightly. Or maybe he was kissing Jodi- I just couldn't tell.

"Don't leave me all by myself," I said, looking up at him apprehensively.

He was still playing with my hair when he replied, "Why, what's wrong?"

"I just don't want to be left alone. Some people still hate me…" I said, my voice trailing away.

"Well, your some people need to get over themselves. Your one of us now." He said, reaching over for my hands.

My eyes were scanning the room. No Ian. I looked over at the door. No shadows.

"Ian told me that they'll be waiting for me at the main cave," Kyle told me, staring me down with those brilliant blue eyes of his.

"Can I come?" I asked him, squeezing his hands.

"Sure, we are a package deal now. Jeb must know you'd tag along…" Kyle's voice trailed away. I looked at him. He was staring at me with a mixture of happiness and confusion.

He sighed and stood up, pulling me up gently with him. He pulled our makeshift door open quietly and held it out for me. We tiptoed past the many sleeping quarters of one of the last remaining human survivors on Earth.

It was dark when we reached the right tunnels, and he walked slowly, as to make sure I wouldn't trip. His hands warmed mine down to the bone. I was jealous of Jodi. Wherever she was right now. She would always own Kyle's heart.

When we neared the end of the tunnels, I saw some flickering shadows in the light morning glow of the main cave. "Hello?" Kyle asked whoever was in there.

"About time!" Jared's voice replied. We heard his footsteps running up to greet us.

"Oh, hey Sunny!" he said when he saw me.

"What's going on?" I heard Kyle ask.

"We need to plan a raid, to get the basics, Clean, Heal and No Pain…" Jared's voice disappeared down the tunnel as he ran back into the main cave.

Kyle and I ran along after him. When we finally reached the main cave, I saw that Jared, Jeb and Ian weren't the only ones there. I was blinking a lot. The sudden change of light hurt my eyes.

Melanie, Candy and Doc were there too. "What? We got loads of them on our last raid!" I heard Kyle's voice beside me. But I wasn't paying attention. On the floor next to Melanie, was a _stretcher_. Jodi's mind gave me the image. She was a doctor before the invasion. And on that stretcher was Lily. She looked awful pale, and she had a thick piece of blue cloth tied around her waist. The blue was tainted with spots of reddish purple. _Blood_.

"What happened to Lily?" Kyle's shocked voice asked. I ran over to her.

"She was hanging off the broken ledge of the river room. She was bleeding a lot too. Apparently she smashed herself onto a pillar. Brandt got her in time, she's sleeping right now…" Melanie's quite voice broke the silence.

I knelt down beside her and ran my pale fingers in her thick, dark hair. "Lily?" I asked the sleeping woman. "What happened?".

I've never seen anything so horrifying in my whole entire life. Not even on the Bears planet.

"The river room? The one that I…" Kyle's voice broke with shame.

He walked over beside me and laid his hands carefully on her cheek.

"Woah, she's cold." he said. I ran my hands carefully to her forehead. She was freezing. And not only that, she was twitching also.

"Is she in pain?" I asked Mel quietly.

"I hope not, right now we can't assume anything for sure." she replied. She than pulled out thick piece of fabric and laid it on Lily.

"I hope she warms up, she's scaring me…" Mel's voice drifted off as she looked at Lily's unconscious pale face with worry.

I could hear the boys planning the raid in the background, but I wasn't listening. Candy had just walked over to us holding a small white spray bottle.

"Let's wake her up and see how she's doing," Candy said as she pulled off the clear lid and spritzed some glittery purple mist on Lily's face. It smells like grapefruit.

Kyle looked up at Candy and asked, "But wouldn't she be in pain that way?"

"I hope not, I gave her loads of No Pain…" Candy replied.

Everyone walked slowly over to check on how she's going.

Lily's face began to twitch slightly, as was her fingers.

"She's waking up!' Jared said excitedly.

Her eyes fluttered open for just a millisecond before she closed it again with a moan of pain.

"Lily? You awake? How much No Pain did you give her?" Ian asked, his voice leaked with worry and he examined her over my shoulder.

"Loads, she was withering in pain when Jared brought her in this evening, we had to give her some Sleep too, so she'd be quite. We didn't want to scare the others. So we had Brandt and Aaron give them our cover stories while we looked after her in the hospital." Candy replied, laying her hand on Lily's forehead.

"We used all our No Pain and Heal on her, but nothing's working! She's losing more blood by the minute! We need something more, or we're going to lose her!" Doc's voice said, somewhere behind me.

I was just looking at her face. She looked peaceful, but at the same time she looked like she was in a whole world of pain. I could never imagine not seeing Lily's face again. The thought of her even leaving us was just too much for me. I've never seen so much pain and sadness in all my lives. My eyes started to brim over. _Lily, Lily, Lily, please be okay_, I repeated to myself in my head.

"We need to restock too. Wanda and us can go out on another raid," Jared said, from behind me.

"Wanda is too well known around these nearby hospitals….. We need someone else…" replied Jeb.

"Hell no! No way, I know what you're thinking and no. We're not going to put Sunny in danger that way! If you want to, you gotta go through me first!" said Kyle from beside me. I turned to face him, his face was hard and outraged.

When he said that, my heart completely swelled over until it hurt He didn't really care about me. Just Jodi's body. Oh what I wouldn't give to make him love me just as much as her.

When I realized that, my tears began to flow even faster, and I let loose my sobs.

"Don't cry, I'm not letting them hurt you…" Kyle said soothingly, holding me close to his side. With that, I cried even more.

_Why did I even come to this planet? _I thought to myself between tears. _All there is here is pain and sorrow! _

"Kyle? I think Jeb's right, I mean Wanda's face is too familiar around here. We need Sunny." I heard Melanie say from somewhere beside me.

"I don't think that we should, I mean, she's new here, and she's scared, and she's all by herself!" Kyle's voice answered, cracking slightly.

"But Kyle, man we need it. I don't want to do this either, but Sunny's had a long enough break, she's having too much, and not really returning anything! Wanda is known around here, and I don't want to lose her, and I'm not being selfish, but Jeb's right this time!" Ian's voice replied.

"You back off, bro!" Kyle's voice was low and menacing. I knew that tone. Nobody messes with Kyle when he used that tone. I could imagine his face right now, blue eyes turned into ice, through narrow slits, and a mouth in a dangerous grimace.

"Look mate, I know she's just beginning to fit in, but she's not _useless_! She's one of _them_! They trust her!" Jared's voice argued, even though it shook just that little bit.

Kyle let go of me, and lunged at Jared. I couldn't help myself, I knew it didn't help the situation, but I started to cry even harder, hiding my face in my hands.

Then silence. Only Ian's voice can be heard.

"Wanda? Honey, what are you doing out of bed?"

I peeked through my fingers. Wanda was here. She was just looking around the caves. And then she saw Lily. Her mouth dropped open and she looked like she was going to choke. And then, out of nowhere Candy lunged at Wanda, locking her in a tight embrace with one arm, and using the other one, she covered Wanda's face with a cloth.

My tears started to reflow again, this time out of fear. Even the nicest of all humans can be dangerous. And I was living in a colony full of them.

"Hey! What are you doing?" Ian's enraged voice broke the silence "Get off her!" More shuffling. This time I didn't bother looking up. My whole body was shaking, and I was soaking my shirt right through.

"Get off me!" I heard Jared scream. No one replied. All I heard was a few more grunts.

"Hey!" Melanie's voice said, "Get away from her! You touch her again, so help me…" I could hear her footsteps running towards the entrance of the cave.

More footsteps, this time heading towards me. "Come on, up you get," I heard Jeb say. I peeked through my fingers and wiped away my tears.

"I'll take you back to your room," he said, smiling gently at me. He extended his arm out and waited for me. I grabbed his hand and he pulled me up.

I was hiccupping. Jodi always hiccupped after she cried. "Wh-where's K-Kyle?" I asked, my voice shaking.

"I'm here," I heard his voice. I followed it with my ears. He looked horrible. His nose might be broken again. My hands shook as I reached out to touch it. He flinched.

"I'm s-sorry," I said, looking at the ground.

"It's okay, it just stings a bit, that's all." he said, smiling at me.

"Come on, let's go," Jeb said.

He and Kyle both walked alongside me as we headed back towards our room.

Jeb sighed slightly as he opened the door . I turned to look at him. He looked tired and worn out. Kyle squeezed my hand lightly as we entered. Jeb closed the door just as quietly as when he opened it.

He turned to look at us.

"Kyle, you know they need her," he said slowly and carefully. I stared wide eyed at him.

So this was why he wanted to drag us back here so fast. _Humans are good plotters_, I thought.

"But really, she's new here, and I don't want to stress her!" Kyle said, looking back and forth between me and Jeb.

"You don't want to stress her or you don't want to accept the fact that you can't hold onto her forever?" Jeb asked, his voice hard.

Kyle just stared at the mattress in silence.

And that's when I realized what needed to be done. Jeb was right. Kyle can't hold onto me forever. Sooner or later, I would've done this anyway.

"Jeb's right," I said, breaking the silence.

"What?" Kyle asked me, his face set in a hard mask.

"Jeb's right-" I repeated, "I'm going to go on that raid."

Kyle stared at me for a long time before looking away. "Jeb, do you mind giving us some alone time?" he asked, his voice leaking with acid.

I looked up too. Jeb was looking at me with slight confusion in his eyes. "Sure kid," he said, not looking away from me. And then he turned and walked out, closing the door with a thump behind him.

Kyle turned around and stared at me. "You are NOT going," he said, with finality.

"Kyle, I have to, Lily needs me!" I pleaded to him.

His face changed from the hard mask he was wearing to fear and worry.

"I'm not letting you go, if they find you… Who knows what will happen?" he said, his voice cracking slightly as he stared at me with sadness filled eyes.

Once again, I felt the stinging pain in my chest. _He doesn't love me, he loves the body_, I repeated to myself. But that didn't help. I could never break his heart, but what I was planning was for Lily's sake.

"Kyle, I-" I broke off. I had just realized that his eyes had just brimmed over with tears. He held me against his body.

"Don't go, please? I don't think I can bear it if I lost you again…" his voice shook.

I didn't realize I was crying either. For a long time we cried in silence. He cried in fear, and I cried in heartbreak. Kyle would only every love Jodi. Not me, the tiny worm inside her head, keeping the body alive.

After our tears dried, we just sat there in silence, holding each other close. I noticed that the room began to glow brighter over time. The others would be waking up for breakfast soon.

I carefully pulled myself away from him.

"Hey Kyle, could you answer my question, truthfully?" I asked him, slowly.

He was analyzing my face.

"Sure honey." He said, pulling me close again.

Once again, I pulled myself away so I could stare at his brilliant blue eyes. _For the last time. _

"Could you ever love… a worm, like me?" I asked quietly, not looking away from him.

He didn't answer, he just stared at me.

I sighed. "Kyle, I'm kinda hungry… do you think you could get me some food?" I asked him, still staring at his eyes.

"Sure honey, I'll be right back," he said, still looking kind of confused. And with that, he left.

I wasted no time whatsoever. I grabbed his torch from the little beside table we shoved into the corner of the room, and shoved on my shoes.

I quietly opened and closed the door and tiptoed down the left corridor. I wasn't familiar with this corridor, but I have seen the raiders coming back through here.

I switched on the torch and made my way up. The first tunnel I reached was a dead end. The second tunnel I reached took me to an opening that overlooked the rivers.

When I reached the last tunnel, I gasped. It too was an opening. But it glowed with natural light. I followed it until, I reached the entrance. I blinked. It was bright. It smelt different too. Less stagnant and salty. I knew this was my cue to run. And I did. I sprinted as if my life depended on it.

The sudden heat was overwhelming. The desert rocks were slipping underneath my shoes. I couldn't stop and I knew it. I can't go back into the caves, I'll be trialed as a traitor. I just need to keep running.

I saw nothing but desert for hours on end. The morning heat was nothing compared to the afternoon heat. I just kept running straight. I half felt smug, I've never ran this much or made up my own mind every since I can to this planet. And I knew that even if Kyle was out looking for me now, he'd never catch up in time.

Soon, the afternoon heat faded away to night-time. I think I'd prefer the heat. It was freezing. I pulled out the torch and kept running, with it lighting my way.

"Wait a minute…" I said slowly. There was a cave ahead. Surge of adrenaline got me running faster. I didn't know if it was an oasis or not, all I knew was I found a place to rest for the night.

When I finally reached the cave, I was panting and covered in sweat. I shone the light around. In the middle of the cave was a huge lump, covered by a piece of green cloth. I walked over to it slowly. The green cloth was covered with dust. I ran my fingers along it to reveal that the cloth was actually made of silk. I've never felt anything so smooth for weeks. I pulled it off.

There was indeed a god. I found myself staring at a black jeep. I opened one of the doors and realized that the keys were still in the ignition.

"Aha, yes!" I said happily. I hopped into the driver's seat and just sat there for minutes on end. I realized that I haven't driven a car for a while. A long while.

I realized that the longer I took, the longer Lily will have to wait for treatment. So I gunned it.

"Woah!" I exclaimed. I had pushed on the pedal so hard, it sent me flying back onto the seat.

"Seatbelt, seatbelt…" I repeated to myself, fumbling for it.

I took a deep breath, and hit the pedal again. The jeep lurched forwards. "Urghh…"I said, slightly nauseas. I pressed it again, this time I finally realized it. It was a _manual. _I changed gears and slowly backed the jeep out of the cave.

I didn't turn on the headlights just in case someone saw it. I drove in silence for a while. _I've got to hit a road soon! _I was getting frantic. I was lost, I don't know if I'm even heading in the right way towards civilization! My palms started to sweat but I kept driving. Then the jeep hit a different surface. I poked my head out the window and checked. It was asphalt and gravel. My heart lightened.

I turned on the headlights and started driving. I didn't know in what direction, all I knew is that I needed to find a healing facility. And fast. I was just driving down the empty highway when I realized the jeep was slowing down considerably. I didn't know why until I checked the dashboard. I was running out of fuel.

"Noo!" I screeched. _Lily, Lily, wait for me, _I thought as I undid my seatbelt and opened the side door. _I'll get you the medicine, just hang on…_ I started running again, this time down the empty highway, looking for help.

I couldn't see where I was going, and I tripped over plenty of times. It was dark, pitch black, and I saw no headlights. I just kept running straight, like I've been doing all day.

Footsteps. I froze in place. The footsteps stopped too. "Hello?" I called out. Sudden light was shone in my eyes. It made me temporarily blind.

"Oh _shit_! It's one of them!" A male voice shouted. I blinked. The man's face was sun tanned and he had dark hair, which was white around his temples. His hair was bushy too. And that was when I noticed his eyes. They were dark brown. Just dark brown. no silver. _Rebel humans_. I felt my body turn on it's own accord. I sprinted as fast as I could in the opposite direction, away from him.

"Rob! Evan! Catch it!" I heard the man call from somewhere behind me. My heart was pulsing hard and fast. I sprinted even faster. Footsteps. They were giving chase. I was slowing down. My legs were giving away from underneath me. The chasing footsteps grew louder and louder.

"Oof!" I cried out as something heavy attacked me from behind and sent me face first onto the road. I realized it wasn't a something, it was a someone. Whoever it was then hopped off me, pulled my hair back, grabbed my face and smashed it back onto the road.

I blacked out.

* * *

**Anywho, sorry it took me so long to update!**

**I've just been so busy with school work, with all the assessments and exams... I swear all the teachers are plotting against us (:**

**I hope you enjoyed the Second Chapter! I just thought It'll be cool to write inside Sunny's head for this one.**

**Review guys!**

* * *


	3. Shined

Chapter 3 - Shined

_**Wanda**-_

The light blue was pulsing ever so slightly. Stars shined from above and diamonds glittered from below. The sapphire blue world was _perfect_. I was in one place, yet I was everywhere. I couldn't feel my body, I just _floated_.

The air was warm and tangy. It smelt of all Pet's favorite herbs and flavours mixed with spicy perfume. The blue was just that perfect sapphire that could scorch up the world in flames when angered, and it could freeze the Earth over when meant to at the same time.

It was just then that I realized something was changing. The musty, flavoury smell was fading slowly away, and was being replaced by a different scent, a scent of grapefruit. My nose tickled. Where was it anyway? I could feel everything, faintly, and I couldn't find the muscles to go with it. The grapefruit smell was now the dominant one. It smelt close, and far, and close all over again, but it was all I could smell.

"… don't blame me if I seemed a little put out, it was because you looked like you had too much fun!" Melanie's angry voice came to me as if carried here by the winds that didn't exist.

_What's going on? Where is she? Where am I??? _I thought to myself frantically. I searched and searched, but to no avail did I find myself. I was here, in this blue world, alone. And I was over there as well- I could hear the anger to every detail.

"I did not have fun trying to jump her if that's what you're implying! You should be glad I'm here trying to wake her!" Retorted an angry Candy's voice. It too, sounded as if was carried here by wind. I tried to look for the angry women, but all I saw was blue.

"You wouldn't have to be waking her if you didn't put her out _in the first place_!" Mel's voice replied, and it was venomous.

"Well I'm sorry I'm the only one who realized that she was going to start screaming and that _she was going to wake up the place_!" Candy's voice replied, this time it wasn't angry. It was exasperated.

"What's taking so long? Is something wrong? Why isn't she waking up? Wanda honey?" That was a different voice. I'd recognize that voice anywhere. I fought even harder against whatever is holding me in this blue world. _Ian? I'm here, IAN! _I screamed the thoughts in my head. I fought my hardest, trying to find every muscle I could possible have had. _And finally winning_.

I could feel my fingers. They were cold. And prickly, like I've had no blood circulation in that area. The next thing I found was my eyes. They were staring at something black and faintly orange. The backs of my closed eyelids. And of course I found my nose, it was kind of itchy, like something had been dusted in it.

"Whoa, can you hear me? Honey?" Ian's voice asked out of nowhere, relieved and surprised. Something warm encased my hands, and I didn't realize I was twitching my fingers until that cocoon pressed down on them, lightly.

My eyes fluttered open. I finally found them. Something dark was blocking my light. _Something's_. I noticed three shadows all leaning over my cot.

_My cot… _I've been moved from the main cave to the hospital cave. And my head ached.

"Ian! What's going on?" My high voice asked.

"Oh your okay, I was hoping no-one _attacked _you that hard!" said one of the shadows, extending out her long and slender tanned arm down to brush my golden hair from my face.

"Mel?" I asked, extending out my own hand so I could hold hers.

The other shadow leaned down and kissed my forehead lightly. No guess on who _that _was. "Hey honey," his soft voice said.

"I did not _attack _her! This is totally unfair! Enjoy your little reunion; I'll take care of Lily. With the _others_!" The third shadow said angrily to the first one.

And that was when the memories hit. The fight, the sneaking around at ungodly hours in the morning, the crude stretcher…

"Candy? Where's Lily? I want to see her! I NEED to see HER!" my voice rose to an unbearable pitch and yet it still sounded perfectly harmonic. The shadows leant down on me, trying to hold me still.

"Woah, hey!" cried Ian, as he tried to stop my thrashing about.

"Great, thanks for that!" I heard Melanie mutter.

The third shadow leant in closer until I could see her face.

"Shh," she pressed me down lightly. "Lily's still sleeping, and at this rate she and the others would be waking up for early breakfast! You've got to calm down Wanda!"

I stopped. I knew she was right. I knew I probably woke up half of the caves already. I started to shake. I just wanted to see her.

"Oh, hey now, don't be crying." Ian's voice cooed. _I wasn't crying! I'm scared! _I thought angrily, glaring up to what I hoped was his shadow. _Crying…. _

"Hey where's Sunny and Kyle?" I asked. I knew Kyle wasn't there because by now he would've made some sort of snide remark or told me to quite down. And if Kyle wasn't here then neither was Sunny. The thought of crying made me think of her, _why was she crying when I last saw her? _So much questions, so little known answers.

"Jeb took her and Kyle back to their room, she was in hysterics after you… _got put out._" explained Mel, from above.

In the background I heard Candy hmpf her.

"Ohmigod! Doc!" I heard her call from somewhere on the other side of the cave. "Come now!"

Melanie and Ian's shadows whipped away from my view as they ran over to her voice.

"What's going on? Is she stabilized?" Ian's worried voice asked.

I pulled myself out of the cot (with much difficulty due to weak muscles) and dropped onto the floor. I also tried to run after them, but that took a lot out of me.

Melanie, Ian, Candy, Doc and Jared were all crowded around a small cot bathed in the lights of the early morning. Being so small I pushed my way to the front with ease. Candy and Doc were closest and they had looks of fear in their eyes. Candy was looking down at the cot, and Doc was making eye contact with Ian. They both had the looks of utmost concentration on their faces.

I finally let my eyes stray from Ian's face and looked down at the cot. My whole body turned cold. Ice cold. Under a thin ragged green cloth rested Lily. She was really pale and her lips were almost white. I followed my eyes to where Candy was now tying around another piece of cloth to her waist. And under her waist were splotches of bright red, staining the bottom of the cot.

"She's anemic I think. She just refuses to heal… I-I I'm out of i-ideas.." Candy's voice shook.

Melanie froze next to me. Jared pulled another piece of cloth from the next cot and handed it over to Candy.

"She's not anemic." My voice broke the silence. What was I doing?

"She needs Deep Heal, and she needs it now."

I stared down at her eyes so I wouldn't have to face the others.

"There's such things as Deep Heal?" Jared's voice asked.

"How did you-" Doc's voice broke off.

I looked up at him. He wasn't looking at me. I looked around. Everyone was staring at something behind me. I looked too.

At the entrance of the hospital corridor was a very distraught looking Kyle. Distraught and very angry.

"Where is she? Is she here? Tell me she's here!" he exclaimed looking over us with hurry.

"Who bro?" Ian asked him, with worry leaking into his voice.

"Sunny! I can't find her! I've been looking all over!" he said, nearly screaming.

We all froze. Little Sunny. Innocent little Sunny… missing?

"Oh no… You don't think…" Jared looked over at Ian, his eyebrows raised.

"No way!" Kyle said, running over to us. "No, she would never do that!-"

He stopped when he saw Lily. "She's not doing too well?" his voice changed abruptly.

Candy shook her head while Ian held me close to his side.

"She needs Deep Heal, according to Wanda," Doc said, nonplussed. Kyle looked from him, and his eyes traveled onto me, embraced into Ian's side.

His expression shifted from shock to hurt to jealousy.

"Well, if no one wants' to help me finder her, than I'll find her myself!" he exclaimed, looking at the ground before turning to leave.

"Wait!" Melanie called after him.

"We'd like to help find Sunny, _of course_. But we also need to get the medicines for Lily!"

His hard mask broke for a second as he stared at her cot. "I need to find her." he said, and turned once again to leave.

"No!" I called. Ian held me closer. Kyle turned, looking at me with ice in his also sapphire eyes.

"We do need to go on that raid, but if Sunny did leave the caves, then there's no point in not looking for her since we're already headed out!"

No one said anything. Kyle walked over again, this time looking at Jared.

"She's right, we need to look for Sunny too." Ian said to Jared.

He nodded. "So what are we still waiting around for? We got a raid and search and rescue to plan! Chop chop!" He gestured for Melanie to wake the others.

I broke free of Ian's grip and walked over to where Kyle was planning with Jared.

"She'll be alright," I said to him, reaching for his hand.

He looked at me. "I hope so," and he didn't even take his hand away.

___________________________________________________________________________

_**Sunny**_-

_Kyle reached out for my hand, smiling. _

"_Come on Jodes, at this rate, we'll never get out!"_

_I turned around, staring at the black kitchen. Mum wouldn't catch me now._

_I turned to him, reaching through the open window, and turned back, looking at the kitchen._

"_We won't get caught, don't you trust me?" he asked, his blue eyes wide._

_I giggled silently and grabbed his hand. With one movement, he managed to swing me out the window and onto the tree branch. He was awfully strong._

"_When does the concert start?" I asked him quietly, getting my footing right._

"_In 45, we'll meet Ian there, of course," he whispered, wrapping his arm around my torso._

"_Haha, stop that!" I laughed, as he swung me over his shoulder. I didn't want to start kicking just in case I got his face. Goodness knows, his nose has gone through enough. The thought made me giggle again..._

_We were at the Winter Kool Music Festival, it must be around what? 12:45 am? And where was Ian?_

"_There you are!" Kyle laughed from beside me. I turned to where he was looking._

_Ian was there, smiling sheepishly at us. His stripy red and black scarf kept on swinging back onto his face. _

"_I was getting drinks!" he called out to us, over the music. He held up a large bag, containing Boost Juice smoothies._

"_But it's freezing!" I called back, pulling up my hoodie. Kyle wrapped his arm around me and held me close. He nuzzled his face into me neck and whispered, "Still cold?"_

_I giggled. "Oh jeez, stop that? Next time I'm bringing a date!" Ian screamed at us over the music. He handed us our drinks… This was a perfect night._

_If only I knew…_

_My head hurt. I waved my arm around restlessly, searching for my pillow. All I got was long, slender wood. My eyes opened sleepily. _

_We had got back late yesterday (or maybe it was today?), around 6 am, and I headed off to bed straight away._

_I must have dosed off pretty deep because I fell off my bed and hadn't noticed. My arm was actually touching my beside table, and the reason my head hurt so much was because I'd landed halfway on it and off it._

_I smiled sleepily. I had just remembered Kyle's goodbye kiss from just a few hours ago. I shivered in delight, that thought will always be mine._

_We had snuck out last night (or this morning?) because today was my last night in town. I'll be spending Christmas in Portland with my grandma. When I told Kyle, he had freaked, worried that I'll be going and not coming back. But I was, in February. So he told me that he'll be giving me my early Christmas present on my last night. And it was wonderful, oh how I loved Linkin Park and Switchfoot… _

_I sighed sadly, 3 months was way too long. I wouldn't be able to live without Kyle._

_I just lied there, staring off at other places, while daydreaming of me and him. Until-_

"_Jodi? Time to get up now, our flight leaves i- What are you doing on the floor?" Mum, obviously._

"_I fell off," I said, getting up on my elbows, staring sleepily at her._

_She ran her hands through her dark hair and smiled at me._

"_Well, come on! Our flight leaves in 2 hours and we need to be there an hour early!  
Oh, and Kyle is here for you." I sprung up. My mind was only alert for the last part. _

"_Well, then I need to change, shoo mum!" I cried, shoving her out the door._

_I just grabbed random mismatched clothing and shoved them on, sprinting towards the window. I opened it and looked around my front yard. I saw him._

_Primly dressed, and just… plain hot. He saw me looking and winked up at me._

"_I'll be right down!" I called out to him._

_I grabbed my luggage in which I packed before I left last night (or this morning?) and practically sprinted down the stairs, nearly knocking my dad down in the process._

"_Hey no runn-" he called, but I didn't hear the rest, I was already out the front door and in his arms._

"_Hey you…" he whispered, running his hands through my mid-length dark hair._

_We just stood there, kissing passionately for what seemed to be an endless time, until-_

"_Jodi, it's time to go! Say goodbye to Kyle now." Dad called. He had obviously just finished packing our luggage into the taxi._

_I pulled myself away from him. "I have to go…" I whispered sadly._

_He kissed me again. "I know… I got you something, and I know it's not thoughtful and kind of cheesy but…" He pulled out some pink carnations and hydrangea, all wrapped up in a rosy wrap and pink ribbon._

"_Oh my…" I said, staring at them. My favourite flowers and colours, all in one. _

"_That's not all…" he said, pulling out a packet of Lindt Swiss Coffee Toffees._

"_For you to enjoy on your flight," he said smiling at me. I wrapped my arms around him and kissed him._

_My favourite flowers and chocolate? I just loved him._

"_Now have a safe flight!" he said. _

_I smiled at him, walking towards the taxi. "I love you!" I called to him._

"_I love you too!" he called back._

"_Bye Kyle, say hi to Ian for me!" Dad called out._

"_Will do!" Kyle replied, smiling. And that was when the taxi started to move. Kyle ran along with us until he couldn't catch up anymore. I just stared at him through all the blocks parting us._

_We got to the airport with just minutes to spare. Mum rushed us towards the right gate, and as we handed our tickets over to the lady at the entrance to our terminal, I looked at her, saying thank you. But I stopped short. She had silver eyes, what funny contacts._

"_Have a safe flight!" She told me, smiling. _

_We pulled out luggage through to the plane. The captain and co-pilot were there, greeting passengers. They too, had funny contact lenses. As we entered the plane, it was dead quite. And empty. _

_That was weird, I could of sworn that we were near the back of the line, and that there were plenty of passengers before us. But that was when I noticed it. An arm, hanging out from underneath a seat. And when I noticed that, I noticed that there was someone UNDER the seat. But they were sleeping._

_I turned to scream out towards mum and dad, but it was too late, something hard knocked me head first into a seat, putting me out with a slight scent, a fruity one… _

The ground was rocking from beneath me. _Was that the plane taking off?_

_OWWW_, my face stung. It was burning and stinging.

My head was heavy. My wrists hurt too, like something weathery was digging into them. Same with my ankles. That weathery _thing _was constricting them together.

My body was bouncing up and down, and I couldn't see. Or move.

My face was stinging to an unbearable point. Something rough was covering my eyes. It felt hard at the back of my head. _Like someone had tied something there_.

I had finally remembered what had happened. I had been caught.

_No, no, no, no, no! Lily needed me! Let me go! _I was really intent on screaming too, but there was a gritty cloth shoved in my mouth. It tasted horrible, like bitter cheese and salt.

The rocking got worse. It bounced my body up and down onto something rough and grainy. With the rocking came a noise. It was a low rumbling. _The sound of a motor_, I was in a car. And that rough, grainy thing was the car seat.

I started to thrash. Kicking my bound legs and shoving with all my might. Then the seat disappeared from underneath me.

_Thump_! My body hit the floor of the car. Face first. I couldn't hold on any longer, it stung too much. I could feel something hot trickling down my cheeks. I started to scream. Into the cloth, but I heard the sound.

"Hey… What? What is that? Rachel, check on it!" Hey, wait a minute! I knew that voice. He was the one who found me… On the highway. He shoved my face onto the road… I screamed and thrashed even harder. I knocked my body back and forth into the seats in front of me and the ones I just fell off.

"Hey stop that! If you don't stay still, they'll shoot you!" A different male voice whispered to me. He sounded close, he was probably the one of the humans sitting in the seats in front of us.

I quitetened myself down. I knew what humans were capable of, and they most probably will shoot me.

"It fell off the seat. It was thrashing about and screaming but now, it just _shut up_! I think it knocked it self out maybe?" A soft female voice replied to the first one.

"Good. We don't want it awake anyway." The first male voice said. There was laughter. Lots of it. That tells me that there are a lot more than 3 people in this car/van. My body felt hot. It stung in many ways, to be humiliated and to be angry.

"I think she might be hurt. I did smash her face pretty hard." The second male voice said.

"Who cares? She's lucky Nate didn't shoot her!" A different male voice replied. The woman named Rachel laughed.

My body stung even more with hurt. So the man who warned me about being shot, _slammed my face into the road_? My chest ached. I wanted Kyle.

"I'm going to pull her up, and off her face. It's bleeding a lot back there," the second male voice said.

"Don't go on being soft now." Another female voice taunted. "Don't want to scar her pretty face?" She laughed, and so did the others.

"If you had your face slammed onto the road, wouldn't you want to at least rest it?" The male voice retorted angrily.

That stopped them short. I even felt a little bit smug. I heard a couple of grunts and heart soft footsteps on the car seats. Out of nowhere, strong arms pulled me up off the floor.

I took that advantage and started to thrash. Kicking the human holding me.

"Woah, hey! Easy there!" The second male voice said, shocked. I realized that he sounded close. Really close. He was holding me up.

I tried to pull myself up straight, but with my shins and wrists bound together, I was off balance, and I knocked both him and me back onto the car seats.

"Hey!" he said, surprised. "You okay?" he asked me. I couldn't see him, so I just nodded.

"Well wait…" I felt hands push me up for a minute. My face heated up. I must of pushed him down and landed on him.

He felt him shuffling from under me. He lifted me up and then layed me back down onto the car seat, face up.

I tried to mumble him a thanks, but my voice was muffled. Something soft but slightly calloused ran along the side of my face, leaving a trail of warmth behind it. "Sorry, about your face…" his voice trailed off. I felt more shuffling and heard his footsteps leave the backseat and onto the ones in front of me.

"I can't believe this, we left for supplies, and came back with one of them!" the soft female voice said indignantly.

The car/van was quiet for a while. All I know is that one of these rebels was called Nate. One of them smashed my face onto a road, and that they must be quiet near to _my _family, if they were raiding in the area. I wondered where they were taking me, back to their hideout, or to another place where they could murder me silently.

I sighed. I also contemplated screaming again, but that would seriously get me shot. I've never regretted doing anything so much in my life. Leaving the caves was _stupid, stupid, stupid_!

I realized that I've just been selfish. I would've done anything to save a life. And I'm going to save her. Lily is waiting. I've just got to get away.

The rumbling in the background began to change, it got louder. Like it had hit a different surface.

"Welcome home people." The male voice that I thought had smashed me onto the road said, his voice leaking with relief.

Applause. And laughter. Maybe they forgot I was here? I thought hopefully.

"What are we going to do about _her_?" The male voice who DID smash me into the road asked.

_Great_. Just when I even had the teensiest sliver of hope.

"Bring her in, but anyone who touches her will go through me." The first male voice said.

"Like anyone would want to be anywhere near her." The second female voice said, the one who had taunted him before.

"You know what I mean." the voice replied. I heard her sigh.

They started to unload. I could hear the doors opening and heavy grunts.

"Up you get, easy now, I don't want to lose an eye," the male voice who helped me up said, laughing. He pulled me up with ease and lifted me up into the air. My stomach dropped, that was sudden. He held me close to his chest, I could feel his heart beating. How funny, I felt mine too.

Cold air whipped my face, making it sting in protest. I shivered. The night here, wherever I was, was cold. He carried me with ease. I heard nothing but the sound of footsteps and grunts.

The air changed abruptly, it was stagnant and musty. And warm too. His footsteps now echoed slightly.

"They're home!" screamed a happy voice from down below. Footsteps followed us at we descended down. The chatter slowly reached us. We entered the room, I knew this because the loud chatter stopped instantly when he carried me in.

It then got replaced by the sound of confuse and angry chatter.

"No one touches her!" the commanding male voice boomed, from somewhere behind me.

"What?" another voice said, from somewhere in front of me.

"We won't hurt her unless she is declared unsafe!" the soft female voice from beside me said.

The angry chatter started up again.

"Declared safe? By whom?" An angry female voice from the crowd asked.

"By Burns? His one of them!"

"Enough!" The male voice I heard from the car/van bellowed.

"She is a guest. Where is Burn's?" the male voice asked.

The chatter resumed, but only quietly.

"I'm here." A soft male voice replied.

I could feel the male holding me up putting me slowly onto the ground.

I whimpered, and started shaking. People hated me here.

"Shh, shh." the soft female voice cooed.

I could feel her or maybe someone else untie the cloth covering my eyes.

The chatter stopped instantly.

She pulled it off in one flourish. Soft light blazed the eyes that are you used to darkness. I gasped.

* * *

**Sorry it took me just about forever to upload :P**

**Been busy studying for my tests. I swear all the teachers are planning world domination!**

**Anywho, glad I finally got this one up :)**

**Enjoy and reveiew!**

* * *


	4. Returned

* * *

Chapter 4 - Returned

_**Wanda**__-_

"Sunny?" I called, sprinting around the caves (well trying to sprint anyways). Everyone was at breakfast right now, and Jared will be breaking out the news that we'd be going on another raid, even if we'd only just got back 2 weeks ago.

"Sunny?" I heard Mel's voice from somewhere upstairs. "Are you here? Please come out! You're scaring us to death!"

"Mel? I really don't think she's here." I called, running up the steps toward the east corridor towards her.

"She just doesn't seem the type to just leave her home at the time of need." Mel said, her face contort with worry.

"Mel," I whispered, "I don't think Sunny ran off to escape."

Mel stared at me. "What makes you think that?"

"Because she's a _soul_," I said, "I think she just did what we did, last year, when Jamie… hurt himself."

Melanie stared at the wall now. "She and Lily were pretty close…"

I sighed. "Do you think Lily will be okay? I mean, I'm no doctor, but she's lost a lot of blood!" I whispered.

Mel picked at a piece of clay on the wall. "I don't know hon, I just don't know. I hope the boys finish breakfast soon. The faster we got out there, the faster we can get what Lily needs!"

Melanie's voice shook. "We'll save Lily, and we'll find Sunny. Have faith," I grabbed her hand, and we walked back towards the main cave.

Light shone on our eyes, making us blink. A black haired kid ran towards us.

"Aww, Mel! Wanda! Can I come, please, please, please!" Jamie pleaded, trying out his puppy-dog face.

"Jamie. No." Mel said, ruffling his hair. He then turned towards me.

"Hey, no! Unfair Jamie, totally unfair!" I said, smiling at him. "That face isn't going to work today, I'm afraid." I, too ruffled his hair and walked over to the boys. Ian looked up at me from his eggs.

"Honestly Mel, you have gotta eat something!" I heard Jared plead to her. She shook her head.

Ian looked up at me. "Eat." he said. I, too, shook my head.

"Not until we get out there." My eyes flickered to Kyle. His head was in his hands, and he too, wasn't eating. He wasn't even moving.

I turned to Ian. "We need to get out there now." I narrowed my eyes at him.

He looked at his brother, and then turned to Jared. "Mate, time to go."

Jared looked at Kyle, then looked towards the east corridor.

"People, let's go!" his voice boomed.

Andy, Aaron and Brandt stood up, nodding. "Bye, be careful!" I heard Paige whisper to Andy.

The whole caves went quiet. "Bye, good luck!"

"Come back soon!"

"Be careful!"

"Watch yourselves!"

"Look after each other!"

The voices called out to us as we left the main cave in silence.

Ian wrapped his arm around me and stared silently at his brother. Kyle had never been so quiet in his life. He just stared and kept walking.

We all followed Jared and Melanie out to where we had loaded the truck with what we needed on out raids.

The sunlight was shining on us as we climbed into the dark truck. Jared took the wheel, and I had to sit at the front, monitoring his speed. Ian had to lift me onto my seat. I could've reached, but he didn't even let me try.

Ian turned to kiss me lightly before closing my door with a slam.

I heard him climb into his seat as well. There was light chatter at the back of the truck. "Let's get going." I said to Jared.

And he gunned the engine.

___________________________________________________________________________

_**Sunny**_-

The light glow of the room reflected of the human in front of me. The silver reflected off the walls. He was tall, fair-freckly skinned, and had bright flaming hair. His navy-silver eyes stared me down. I was speechless.

Someone was working on the weathery thing tied around my ankles. I looked down. A really pretty brunette was untying the ropes tied around my ankles and wrists. She was pale and had long, straight hair.

My eyes continued to scan the room. Hushed conversations were starting up again. There must be around, what, fifteen people in this room?

_Room_, I wasn't underground! Actually I was. The room I was standing in had wooden walls though. This was a _cellar_. But the weird thing about the cellar was that it had corridors, heading down, heading up, heading in all sorts of places! I looked around, the cellar was wider and taller than the main cave back home!

_Home_, I thought. Would I ever see that place again?

"She's tired, take her to the empty room by the 6th corridor and let her rest," the soul named Burns told a man behind me.

I turned around slowly. There were five people standing behind me, all looking at me with different emotions.

The man I recognized from the highway was the one Burns was talking to. He was looking at me with concentration in his eyes, like his mind was elsewhere. There was also another woman, she had wavy blonde hair and tanned skin, she was short, but taller than me and she stayed very close to the other male. _A partnership maybe_?

There were also three more men there. One was extremely tall, Burns' height and he had blonde hair and hard-set brown eyes. The other one was slightly shorter with curly brown hair and gentle green eyes. The last guy stole my attention completely.

He was pale, taller than me about two head's and had pitch black hair and emerald green eyes. He had stunningly perfect features. Chiseled jaw and nose, and he stood tall. He was also standing the closest to me. _The guy from the van_, I realized.

He extended out his hand and grabbed mine, turning to look at the man down the back, whom I assumed is the leader. His hands heated mine up. I blushed against my will. _Kyle, think of Kyle.._

"Yep, take her there. I'll sort out things here." he said, looking at the man holding my hand.

"I'll come along too!" the pretty brunette next to me said excitedly to him.

The crowd murmured again in the background. She ignored them.

"Please dad?" she pleaded the man at the back, the assumed leader.. I gasped. I'd never known.

The man next to me tightened his grip. Her dad narrowed his eyes onto me.

"Blake, make sure she stays in line okay?" he said to the man.

"Yes sir, Burns you coming?" Blake turned and asked the soul.

"I'll come later… I've got things… to discuss with Nate." he replied.

Blake looked back and forth between the leader, whom I later found out was Nate, and Burns.

"Okay then, come on now." The brunette smiled at me, ushering me along. We weaved our way through the crowd, ignoring the angry glares and muttering.

"Seriously," said Blake, "Your going to give you dad a heart attack Rachel!"

The woman named Rachel was looking at me. "She doesn't look like a Seeker, and she's definitely not a threat… I don't think…" she trailed off. She had just seen my face clearly.

"Omigod, Blake!" she screeched. We all froze in our tracks. The crowd behind us stopped talking and turned to look.

"What?!" he asked, worried.

"What did you do to her?" Rachel was giving him the look of utmost disgust.

She reached out to touch my face, but I inched away. _Did I really look that bad_?

Blake swung me around quickly, but not roughly. I stared into his green eyes. He was looking at me with guilt. "I'm so, so sorry…" he said, running his fingers along the cuts. Rachel leaned forward and shoved him out of the way.

I had this wierd vision of Kyle smashing in his perfect nose. Funny, it came out of nowhere.

"The quicker she rests, the quicker she'll heal! I swear if he hurts you again, you can tell me…" Rachel was a very talkative woman. I giggled. But it was different. I was scared, and was on the verge of hysterics, so it came out like a slight hiccup.

She hushed me along the corridor, which was made of lots of wood and clay to a room. It had a wooden door and when she pushed it aside, I could see one double mattress and a small shelf. The holes in the walls gave the room a glow of natural light.

On that little shelf was a lantern, which I soon found out to be solar powered. And on that mattress was two small pillows and a very thin sheet of fabric. It reminded me of the mattress I had shared with Kyle just a couple of hours ago.

My eyes swelled over. You'd think that of all the times I'd cried today that I was out of tears. Oh how very wrong I was. I broke out into sobs. Very loud ones too. I was crying and talking at the same time.

"Oh Kyle, where am I? Come and get me K-Kyle!" I was saying wordlessly through tears.

The two humans just stood there as I crumpled to the floor and cried myself out to this body's one true love.

_Kyle, Kyle, Kyle, Kyle…. _I must of layed there for hours. I didn't even notice when Blake and Rachel left. I just curled up on the floor, next to the mattress and cried my little heart out.

When I finally realized that crying wasn't going to get me out of this place I just stared at the ceiling. The floor was cold, and my face was finally starting to heal. It was no longer bleeding, at least.

I thought about everyone I had lost.

_Mum, dad, grandma, Kyle, Ian, Wanda, Lily… Jeb, Melanie, _basically everyone I every really cared about. They were all gone.

How did I even get here? _Oh, right, I was foolish and thought I could go out on my own and just hope for nothing to go wrong_, I was self-bashing. And I knew that. It's not going to be good for my mental state.

**What mental state?**

I froze. That. Wasn't. Me.

**I'm here too you know**_._

Holy crap.

_Jodi?_ I thought out to her (or maybe it was just my mind?).

**Who else? Honestly…**_. _she was tsking me in my mind.

I could suddenly _feel _her. She was flipping through my memories at lightning speed.

I was in shock. _Where the hell did you come from?_

**Holy! Kyle? Where is he?**She was NOT too happy about all my thoughts about Kyle.

**He is mine! Keep your mind off him!**

_Where the HELL have you been? I've been searching for you ever since they put me back in here! Do you know how hard it's been? Having people looking at you like you've stolen someone else's mind??_ I screamed my thought at her.

She was silent. **I-I don't really know...**

I was being rude. And anger didn't suit me well.

_Jodes, I'm so sorry._

Nothing.

_JODI!!!!_

My mind was my own. _Where the hell was she?_ Oh. My. God. I'm losing my mind.

**No your not! I'm right here! And, apology accepted, I guess.**

I sat up quickly. Jodi? Where have you been?

**I don't know, I mean I've been here, just… not here, do you know what I mean?**

_No, I don't. And what do you mean you've been here? We've been trying to call you out since, well, forever!_

**Honestly I have no idea where I was, it's just like… pop! I'm here!**

_Well, I'm sorry about Kyle. You know it's your body that's dragging me to him… And he never really gave up on you, you know?_

She didn't reply, she was too busy flipping through my thoughts.

**Wow, Ian found his love? She's a soul?**

She seemed surprised enough. I took that Ian wasn't much of a dater back in the days.

_Yeah, she's really nice too. Hey Jodi? Tell me one thing- how did you come back?_

**Well, I saw Kyle, like in your vision right? And you needed him just so bad. Your emotions were going haywire, and that unlocked the- HOLY CRAP!**

_What??_

**My face, your face, OUR face! Ouch, the road? Jeez Loiuse!**

_Uhh, yeah. Blake did it. Wait, so your telling me that you were there, the whole time?_

**Yeah, I couldn't get out.**

_But what about the time when they took me out? Couldn't you have broken free?_

**That is weird, maybe I wasn't there… But how come I'm here now?**

She seemed completely honest about her answer. Plus, if she was lying, I'd find out.

_Your guess is as good as mine_.

**Whose this Blake? Smashing my face… Omigod. He likes us!**

_What?? That's stupid._

**No honestly!**She flung at me all the visions of him, him touching us, him carrying us…

_No, he like's you. Face it Jodi, you're not ugly._

**Pfft, me? Whatever…**

She flung more memories at me.

_No, he can't like me! I'm a worm!_

**Well, he'd better not like me. Kyle would chuck a fit if he found out... Kyle… I need to see him. We have to get out of here!**

_Agreed. And Blake? Yeah, let's drop the subject._

**… _You like him!_**

She seemed outraged. She flung a countless number of memories at me.

Her and Kyle at the movies, at the beach... kissing in all sorts of various places.

_No, I do NOT!_

No reply. But I could still feel her presence.

_Hey Jodi?_

**Mmm?**

_Are you here to stay?_

_**I think so.**_

_You better be. Kyle would murder me if he found out I lost you. Again._

**Yeah, that's my Kyle. And don't change the subject of Blake. I know human men.**

I hmpf-ed her. We just sat there in silence for a long while… contemplating our situation.

___________________________________________________________________________

I didn't realize I had dosed off until bright morning lights was shining onto my face. I blinked. It was morning. But I got here in the afternoon… I slept through the whole night!

I pushed myself up into a sitting position.

**Are we on the mattress?**

_Jodi? Jodi! You're still here! Oh, wait we are._

The mattress was lumpy too, not like my old one, back at the caves.

**Of course I'm here, you brought me back remember?**

_We've been moved._

I turned around on the mattress when I noticed that on the shelf next to it was a tray. And on that tray were bread and some cold eggs, with a cup of water.

My stomach rumbled. I didn't realize how hungry I was until I tasted the food. Then I wolfed it down. The water tasted kind of stagnant but I downed it all.

**Maybe they have rivers, just like at the caves!**

_Hmm, maybe, or maybe this place has indoor plumbing?_

The thought of a hot shower cheered me up just that tad little bit.

I looked around. The room was unchanged except for me and the food. I hopped off the bed, and tiptoed to the door. I twisted t the faux-home made doorknob, but it wouldn't budge. I shoved against it, but still nothing. I slid down in defeat and sat at the door. Waiting for someone. Anyone.

Jodi was still flipping through my memories, catching up on what's she's missed.

**Lily? Is she okay?**

_No idea, I hope the boys have found something by now though._

Footsteps down the hall broke off our conversation.

"I heard something. Maybe it's woken up?" I didn't know that male voice.

"It's a _she_. Honestly… men." replied an all-too familiar voice. Rachel. The doorknob twisted and shoved against me.

I jumped out of the way, away from the door and it swung open.

"Hey you! Finally woken up? Come on, let's go see Burns…" Rachel chirped happily. The man with her I recognized. It was the taller guy, with blonde hair. He analyzed me with the same hard expression as yesterday.

"That's Tom, you'll get used to him." Rachel laughed, though giving him a hard look. I looked down, that was when I'd noticed that they were holding hands. I looked at her, my eyebrow raised.

"Oh…" she said, noticing. "We met each other in college, when it all happened."

"Oh, sorry." I said timidly.

"It's okay!" she laughed, grabbing my hand with her free one and dragging both me and Tom after her.

**Wow. She's… energetic.**

_Ha. That's an understatement._

She dragged us both down the hall and back into the cellar, where people were enjoying their breakfast. That was until I came in. The chatter stopped short, but Rachel ignored all of them, and before anyone could say anything, she dragged us through another hallway, made of wood and clay. We got dragged to the last room. She knocked on the door smartly.

"I've got the urgh… what's your name?" she asked me.

"Sunny.." I replied. I noticed Tom analyzing me again. I looked away.

"I've got the soul named Sunny!"

The door opened suddenly.

Burns, Nate, the other guy from the van, and, my stomach jumped a little bit, Blake, were all there.

**Hey!**

Kyle's face popped up in my mind, sad and depressed. It made my heart ache of guilt.

_Sorry._

"Sunny huh?" he looked at me, smiling slightly.

Jodi growled at him through my mind.

Burns stood up from the seat he was in and walked over taking my free hand.

"Oh, right…" Rachel dropped my hand and dragged Tom after her, closing the door when they left.

I turned to face the men. Nate was still staring at my face with concentration, the other guy was smiling at me and Blake was staring at where Burn's hand was holding mine.

"So, Sunny. Tell us, what were you doing on that motorway by yourself that night?" Nate asked me, gesturing towards a spare stool beside him.

I walked over and sat down, letting go of Burn's hand. "My car broke down." I said, short and simple.

"And you were driving in the middle of the night? By yourself?" the shorter man with curly hair asked.

"I'm sorry, but who are you?" I couldn't help it is suspicion leaked into my voice, I used to live with other rebel humans too.

I saw Nate's eyebrow rise. He was now looking at the other man.

"I'm Evan, nice to meet you." He stood up and reached for my hand.

I took it, slightly unsure.

"Tell me Sunny, but _what _exactly were you doing on that motorway, by yourself, at night?" Nate asked, his eyes locking onto mine.

"My friend was hurt; I needed to get to the nearest Healing Facility to get her some _things_." Still s`1hort and simple. I'm not relishing over the fact that I had a human family.

"Knowing what I do know, about your _species_, you guys don't tend to travel alone, especially not at night." Nate continued.

"Well, I'm different, and it was an emergency." I replied, keeping eye contact.

I could see the other men stiffen slightly. But not Burns.

"Tell me Sunny, what's your full name?" Burn's asked, breaking the silence.

"Sunlight Passing through the Ice, and you… Burns?" I replied, my voice shaking slightly. I did not like the way they were _interrogating _me.

"Burns Living Flowers," he replied, cocking his head onto the side.

"Oh, Fire World. I see…" my voice trailed off.

"It's a strange world. I know. But know that we found you, you can be one of us, unless you object?" Burns asked me, staring deeply into my eyes.

I looked quickly at the others. Nate, Evan and Blake were all looking at me intently.

"Uhh, I've got to get back to my friend." I said quickly.

"Well, considering that we've just let you into our home, I don't think we can let you leave." Nate said, looking at me.

"Then why did you just ask if I'd object?" I asked, my voice low and, to my surprise, menacing. Lily needed me. Jodi was a doctor, and I know that the human body doesn't hold _that _much blood.

Blake raised his eyebrows at Evan.

"I'm so sorry," I said, my face heating up. "But I can't stay when someone is dying!"

Common courtesy, always have a good reason for leaving a party early. My reason was better than good. It was urgent.

"So you can retie me up and drop me off at the closest clinic, and I won't even have to know where we are, but I really need to go." I pleaded with them.

**They're not going to let you go.**

I knew she was right.

"We can't let you go Sunny. You know that right? If we drop you off at the next town, then you'd know we live somewhere near here! I'm sorry." Blake said -his eyes truly sorry.

I looked down at the ground, blinking back more tears. _I'm so sorry Lily, I've failed you._

**We've failed her. I'm a part of this too.**

I wiped them away quickly.

**You've just got to have faith in the fact that Kyle is out there looking for us. And that the boys would know exactly what to do with Lily, they'll find save her.**

Jodi was, in so many ways stronger than me. And I was glad she's back. I needed her.

**We need each other.**

Nate stared at me, slightly confused now. I could tell exactly what he's thinking.

'Seeker's aren't that great liars. Maybe she does have a hurt friend… We'll we can't let her go now.'

I looked away.

"We're so sorry Sunny." Evan said, his voice quiet.

I didn't reply.

"Well enough of this chit chat, we've got chores to do that aren't going to got done themselves!" Nate's voice breaking the silence. I sighed, as the men headed for the door, taking me with them.

I was near the back of the group when Blake stopped and waited for me.

"Are you okay? You seem a little shaken up." he asked softly as we joined up with Rachel and Tom.

"Yeah, I should, be okay." I kept my eyes onto the ground.

"Who's Kyle?" he asked suddenly.

Jodi, was now listening very intently on our conversation.

"You mentioned him, back at your room."

"Uhh, he's this body's boyfriend…" I said truthfully, looking in the other direction from his face.

**Don't tell him about the others though!**

_Don't worry, I won't tell them about the others._

"So, are you and the soul inside his head, like, mates?" Blake asked, quietly.

I looked up towards him, he was looking in the other direction.

"Uhh, yeah. And he's going to be worried about me." I said, quickly diverting my eyes to the floor.

_That's right! Ha! We're taken, back off!_

Jodi felt just a little bit _too _victorious.

"Oh, okay then. Umm, I'm really sorry about taking you away from him, and uh your friend." he said, looking at me, green eyes attentive.

I just looked at him silently.

"Hey! Sunny!" Rachel called from the front of the group, running back towards us.

"You're going to be joining us for chore's today, it's going to be so fun! We get to……," she kept going.

I saw Nate's eyes flicker back towards his daughter and me with worry from the front.

"--and then we can go and pick flower's, but of course dad might not let us, it's enough that he even let's us outside! Oh and I think Burns' likes you!" she giggled, looking at me.

I felt Blake's eyes bore into the back of my head, but I wasn't concentrating.

"We get to go outside?" I asked her, shocked.

"Yeah! We grow our food outside! Can't exactly grow anything inside here dufus!"

**Outside, huh?**

Jodi's mind was moving at full speed... I could read her plans.

_Wow. This is going to be easy._

I felt so hopeful my chest swelled.

**Umm, or not.**

Burns had just walked back towards us with Tom. Rachel smiled at me enthusiastically. From beside me I heard Blake sigh.

**What did I tell you?**

_You said Blake liked me! Not Burns!_

**Urghh, it's like a sick love square!**

I ignored her.

Our group entered the cellar, it was empty, except for a couple of people. They were eating their eggs and bread slowly, eyeing us as we walked past.

Burns looked down at me. "What happened to your face Sunny?"

From the corner of my eye I saw Blake look down at me. "Accident that happened." I replied, looking him in the eye.

"Well, I was hoping maybe you'd like to work on the potatoes with me today?" Burns asked me hopefully.

Rachel giggled. I turned to look at her. "Well, I was going to ask you to join us for carrots, but looks like you can work with Burns."

I stared at her. She just kept on giggling.

"Well, actually-" Blake's voice broke the silence. I turned to look at his dazzling eyes, "I was hoping you'd work with me and Nate, on the cabbages, but you know, you can work with Burns."

I just stared at him.

_This. Cannot. Be. Happening._

I looked around at the three faces, all waiting for an answer.

"Uhh, well.." I stammered.

Oh, help me Jodi!

She too, seemed uncertain.

**Umm, go with Rachel! She's your closest friend here.**

I was going to say something when Blake broke in. "You know what? Go with Burns, I think Nate needs me." He was kind of cold. He just walked off.

Rachel smiled at me. "Yeah, go with Burns, we'll catch you for lunch!" she and Tom walked off towards where her dad and Blake were.

I looked around. Burns was looking at me expectantly.

**We need to get rid of these people! Argh!** She was so frustrated.

I sighed. _This is going to be hard._

* * *

_I would like to thank my reviewers,_

_Without them, there wouldn't be a fourth Chapter!_

_Thank you;** ivamp3**, _**siramad21**_, , **TopKat90** & **LissaLang** (:_

* * *

**Hehe, two stories, published in one day.**

**So anyways, I realised it was kinda confusing so I bolded Jodi's thought's and italic-ed Sunny's (:**

**Oh, and I changed Jodi's thoughts about Blake and added a little bit more, just to fix it up a little bit.**

**It's sort of rushed, sorry guys. Anywho, hoped you enjoyed it! :)**

**Reviews, please! **

**Kate xx**

* * *


	5. Paranoid

Chapter 5 - Paranoid

_**Melanie-**_

The hot afternoon sun was shining very brightly on the top of the truck. I was actually kind of hungry. I just didn't feel like eating breakfast after all that happened.

"… and then we'll meet up at Clariston's for the journey home."

I looked over at the boys planning the raid at the back of the truck with me. Ian had his head in his hands and Brandt and Aaron had very grave faces. Kyle just looked… _dead_. His face had absolutely no emotion. He just stared off into the empty space. It was hard to understand what he would be going through… losing the one he truly loved. Thinking about it struck fear into my heart.

I looked back towards the driver's seat to where Jared was driving and Wanda was observing. I'd truly die too if I'd ever lost them or Jamie.

"Is it just the Deep Heal? We'd grab the Awake and Clean too." Aaron said to Ian.

"Grab everything you can possibly grab- preferably the Heal's and the Clean." Ian replied, checking with Wanda.

"And Smooth." She said as an afterthought.

I sighed and leaned back against the truck. The search and rescue party were split into two groups. Me, Jared, Kyle, Wanda and Ian would take care of looking for Sunny, whereas Brandt, Aaron and Andy would be taking care of the raid. It shouldn't be too hard, now that Wanda has found out where the souls stored their medicine, which was totally unguarded and out of the way, anyone could do it.

We would split up for about a week, and when the raid teams had finally got everything, they'd wait for us at the Clariston's Motel parking lot. It was huge and unlit, and even better; no-one really goes there to check on it. So they'd be alright. It would be hard to find Sunny though… who knows where she was. But even if we don't find her, we'd follow on and head to the Clariston's after a week to check up on the raiders. After that we'll decide what to do next… The most important thing right now is Lily's health.

"You think Jeb can handle it?" Andy asked someone, breaking the silence. I looked up.

"Handle what?" Aaron asked him, confused. "Jeb can handle anything."

Andy gave him a pointed look.

"Covering for Doc and Candy…while they looked after Lily. And keeping annoying people like Lacey in check." He laughed to himself at the last part.

I rolled my eyes at him. "Uncle Jeb can handle the undercover stuff. But the Lacey thing? Ha, he's going to struggle."

I heard Jared chuckle from the front seat. Even Ian smiled. I saw him looking hopefully at Kyle, who was still monotonic. His smile faltered. He sighed silently and looked in another direction.

It must be truly hard for Kyle; finding Jodi again, then finding out she was gone and then losing her body and the soul inside it soon after. Humans weren't built to handle such hurt- I would've broken down a long time ago.

We drove in silence for a couple of hours. Jared had to stop the truck to swap drivers just a couple of minutes ago. He needed rest, so Ian took charge. He probably wanted to be with Wanda. I took that time to observe the desert surroundings. The highway was empty except for a white Camry and a passing by Super Mart delivery truck. Wanda seemed happy with the change of drivers though. I could hear them happily chatting about what would happen after they found the right treatment for Lily and when they would find Sunny.

Kyle took Ian's place in the backseat and I scooted over to him. He wrapped his arm around me and I rested against his chest. He was bickering to Andy and the other boys about the last football match we ever had and how they had cheated, yada yada yada. I was actually looking at Kyle. He was watching the road silently.

"Wait! Stop!" He suddenly called out to Ian. We all jumped up at the sound of his voice. Ian hit the brakes with a screech. Wanda looked shaken to death when she turned. "Kyle, what's wrong?"

We were all looking at him. My heart was beating furiously.

He was staring at the rearview mirrors now.

"See that white Camry?" He pointed at Wanda's mirror.

We all shuffled forwards to see. I was faster and beat the boys to the front. I could hear Andy and Brandt muttering and shuffling behind me. We squinted at the mirror. It was indeed a white Camry. It was parked off to the side just a couple of hundred meters back. I froze in realization.

"That was the same Camry we saw when you guys changed drivers." I said quietly to Ian.

"Let's get moving. If there are Seekers in that car then we don't want to arouse any suspicion." Jared whispered from behind me. Ian nodded silently and turned the engine back on.

We kept driving in silence for a long time. I checked the rearview mirrors often, but we didn't see the Camry, thankfully.

In no time it was getting dark. "We need to dock somewhere to spend the night." Wanda said, turning around to face us.

I shook my head defiantly. "We can't. Lily needs that Deep Heal as quickly as possible!"

She glanced at Ian, who then glanced at Jared. He sighed.

"It's time to split up. I see a hotel ahead; you guys can drop us off there then go find the nearest Clinic. When you find the Deep Heal, head straight back to the caves, Candy will know what to do. After that, come back and wait for us at Clariston's. We'd be there exactly seven days from now, if not, leave without us." It wasn't an idea, it was an order.

Brandt sighed too. "You want us to just leave you there, all by yourselves?"

Wanda's eyes flickered to meet mine. "They'll have me." She trilled.

Silence. Then finally- "We need to do this, time's a-ticking." I heard Andy say quietly.

"Then Jared's plan it is then." Ian said with finality. He restarted the engine and drove us down to that nearby hotel that Jared remembered was there from memory.

It was called the Midnight Inn. It was almost empty- just the way we preferred it. Ian hopped out of the driver's seat and walked around, opening Wanda's for her. He lifted her out of her seat, and I saw her beautiful face scowl a little. I couldn't help but smile- I knew she hated it when people did things for her. He then walked around the back and opened the truck's delivery doors, inconspicuously letting me, Jared, Kyle Aaron and Brandt out.

We walked hurriedly back to the front of the truck, whispering to Brandt and Aaron;

"Keep to the speed limit."

"Seven day's if not, just leave."

"Be careful."

I turned around, "Good luck guys," I whispered.

Brandt nodded as he took the driver's seat. Aaron went around to the passenger's side. He turned around and looked at us.

"You guys be careful too!" Brandt whispered, keeping his face low, just in case.

"Good luck with Sunny!" Aaron said quietly to Jared, eyes flickering back and forth between him and Kyle.

We all nodded at them as they backed out of the lot, and I waved as they turned the corner, headed towards the closest Healing Clinic.

Wanda sighed from beside me. "Time to head inside," she said, looking at us. Ian nodded. Wanda walked at the front, much to Ian's distaste, and we followed closely behind, ducking our heads.

The happily colored 'Yes, we got rooms for all occasions!' Sign blinked at me as Wanda pushed open the double doors. For some reason, that sign made me feel like I'm being watched. I glanced at Jared quickly from underneath my hair, but he was too busy pretending to talk to Ian about today's weather.

I looked back at the lot before entering the hotel, so I didn't have to look at the sign, and that was when I noticed it, in the sundown glow, a white Camry pulling into the parking lot. I hurried my pace and caught up with the boys, who were pretending to be immersed in a deep conversation with their heads low and their backs to the receptionist.

"… with three double beds? Yes, and any number of bathrooms is acceptable. Mm hm, yes we'd pay in cash, mm yes, only a week…" I heard Wanda's voice from across the room.

"Kyle, Kyle!" I whispered quickly, ducking my head also. He looked up at me, the other boys were still pretending to talk but I could feel their eyes bore into my head.

"What?" He asked, his eyes darting all around the place. He was obviously nervous about sleeping under the 'enemies' roof for the first time- usually he slept in the truck, keeping watch.

"See that white Camry?" I asked, inconspicuously flicking my long hair towards the lot, and giving him a really hard stare. I saw his eyes bore into it, widening slightly.

"Yeah…" He said slowly, still watching them.

"What are they doing?" I asked him, pretending to laugh at a joke no one in particular had said.

"They're just… just sitting in it, watching us, or something else." He said, still watching them. I was too preoccupied to notice that all chatter has died down and that Ian and Jared were right by our sides.

Before we could do anything though, Wanda bounded over to us. "Hey we got that room!" She chirped, turning around to wave to the receptionist.

"Let's go," I said quickly, shoving her and the boys towards the elevators, glancing back at the white Camry quickly.

"Hey what-," Wanda tried to say before Ian nudged her. Kyle was pressing the elevators up button really quickly, waiting for the doors to open.

"Come on, come on!" I heard him mutter. Then- _ding_! It finally opened up. We all tried to file in quickly without drawing too much attention.

"What level are we on?" I asked quickly as the doors closed. I heard Ian and Jared sigh.

"Uhh," She said, referring back to the docket and the keys she was carrying.

"Umm, it is… Floor 2. I mean this is an inn. Now tell me! What is going on?" She asked us over the calming elevator music.

Ian slid over next to her and said "The white Camry just pulled into the lot. We don't know what it wants."

"Or if it's the same one." I said, my voice shaking slightly. I could feel Jared's hand closing over mine. I squeezed it tightly.

"It's definitely the same one. Same plates and dent on the lefty side." Kyle said quietly.

_Ding_! The doors slid open. Wanda poked her head out and checked the hallway.

"All empty." She said, poking her head back in. "But the room 48 seems to be occupied…"

I poked my head out; I could hear the distant laughter coming from the rooms 48, and 39. "Room 39 too." I reported.

We all walked silently towards- "Room 54." Wanda told us, pushing the key through the lock quietly. She pushed the door open, revealing a huge room, with three double beds, all pushed to the side. There was also one TV and two bathrooms. I rushed towards the windows while I heard Jared lock the door from behind us. I pushed open the blinds roughly and stared down at the parking lot.

The afternoon sun was disappearing into the purple sky and leaving gashes of orange and red through it. That glow bathed the lot in a warm orange light. I searched until I found it- the white Camry. I felt Jared come up from behind me, putting his hand on my shoulder.

"Where's the Seekers?" He asked suddenly. The others rushed over as I stared back down at the Camry. It was completely empty. That was also when the sun disappeared completely and when the Inn managers turned on their hallway and parking lot lights.

Wanda froze from beside me, staring down at the now artificially lit lot. "Maybe they went… for something to eat?". The laughter down the hall got louder.

_Knock, knock, knock_, "Room Service!" A happy female voice chirped from outside. We all turned slowly and I let the curtain drop, blocking the outside world from view.

"We didn't order any Room Service!" Ian called, making his voice as peaceful and happy as possible. "Maybe you got the wrong room?"

"It's on the house. All customers get the full treatment." She replied happily from outside.

"Coming!" Wanda called, gesturing for us to hurry up. I ran and hopped onto the bed, grabbing the complementary magazine called _Healthy Lifestyle_ and pretended to read. Ian hopped onto the next bed and flicked the TV on, pretending to jump channels. Jared was unpacking and Kyle was in the bathroom.

She opened the door just a little notch. "Hi, I can take it in for you!" She trilled happily.

"Oh nonsense. What kind of inn would we be if we'd just let out customers do our job for us?" The woman on the outside laughed. I peeked under my hair, and saw that Wanda had opened the door fully.

"No really, I'll take that trolley of food in." She smiled, showing her teeth. I also glanced at the woman. She was probably in her mid twenties.

"No, let me." She gently pushed Wanda aside, pushing in the trolley of food. Ian flinched a little bit at the sight of her and the soul being so close. I squinted at her from under my thick brown tresses. She was laying out the food carefully, but before she left, her grey eyes swept the room, analyzing every detail of everyone and thing. I saw her eye me and then Ian's back and Jared's shuffling of clothes before leaving with a smile at Wanda.

"Have a nice night!" She called out to us before Wanda closed the door with a "You too!" She sighed, locking it behind her. I straightened myself.

"What was all that?" Kyle asked, opening the bathroom door. Ian shrugged and tossed the remote aside.

"They give away a free dinner for all of their guests?" Jared asked no one in particular, plopping on my bed. Wanda walked over towards the trolley of food, pulling off their platter covers. "Whoa."

My stomach rumbled loudly. I have yet to eat anything today. Everyone heard it in the silent room. But no one was paying any real attention to me. We were all string at the food, all served up in silver platters.

There was roast turkey, drizzled with a delicate cherry sauce, pumpkin soup with grated cheese topping it, a chicken salad with cherry tomatoes and mushroom with Italian sauce on the side, a platter of hokkein noodles with pork and other Asian vegetables, chocolate sponge cake with vanilla icing and strawberries and some sticky date pudding topped off with a creamy custard.

The room was completely silent. We could almost hear each other salivating. That wasn't even all. In a bucket of ice was chilled red and white wine. And with that wine was another bottle- of spirit.

Wanda was in complete shock. She had never seen such food ever since she came back in Pet's body, but she definitely remembered the taste of everything- except the alcohol. I could almost see her eyes widening. But I only had one thing in mind. Everyone was thinking the same thing. _Holy crap_.

Kyle actually took a step forwards, towards the trolley and all of our eyes zoned in on him. He was staring at the food with so much longing- his face even looked peaceful. Jared gulped. Ian was quiet. All his attention was on the food. Wanda was still in shock, and me? Yeah, it's taking all of my self control to still be sitting on this bed.

"So, uh, do we eat?" Kyle's longing voice broke the silence and distracted me. I didn't realize I was scrunching up _Healthy Lifestyle _in my hands until it stabbed into my skin and gave me a paper cut. My eyes personally zoned in on the hokkein noodles. _Food, food, food! _Well, that was my stomach, I was a big fan of Asian food and I was already drooling.

"Well, uh, we don't know if it's safe to eat, but it's safe though, isn't it Wanda?" Ian's voice was pleading.

"Uhh, I think so, I mean, it might not be, we'd never know…" She broke off, I could see her eye the turkey. Jared was breathing very hard, I could see him scrunching up our blanket between his hands and smoothing it, and scrunching it all over again. He was totally disregarding all the clothes strewn over the floor in which he was 'unpacking'.

It was hard to look away from the food, but I did. I quick-stepped past all the drooling humans (and one soul) to the door. I kneeled down, and pressed my face to the ground, checking the hallway at eye-length. Nothing. I gently opened the door, turning around and gesturing towards Wanda. She peeled her eyes away from the turkey unwillingly and headed slowly towards me.

_What_? She mouthed, glancing back towards the food and the shocked men quickly.

_Come with me! _I mouthed back, gesturing for her to hurry up. She hobbled quickly to the door, and I gently slid it closed, but not before turning around and whispering, "You touch anything on that trolley, I'll skin you." I smiled with satisfaction as one by one, the boys peeled their eyes from the platters of food to eye me stubbornly.

Wanda was staring at me, horror-struck. "Mel!" She whispered, aghast.

"Honestly Wanda! I'm not going to skin them…" I said, laughing, nudging her slightly. She didn't seem at all reassured. Her petite face was stricken with worry as I pushed the doors for the stairs open.

We tiptoed down the stairs this time, headed towards the bottom floor. I was so preoccupied that I didn't even notice that the floor was completely quiet. Wanda waited until we were halfway down the stairs before turning on me, her little face set on determination. "What are we doing? You could get caught! We should be stayi-" I cut her off. The staircase was empty and her voice echoed loudly off into the distance.

"Oops.." She broke off. We were standing very quiet there, on the staircases between Floor One and Two. Silence. We stood their for a couple more minutes.

I turned to her. She was pale with fear. "Do you think they heard us?" She whispered. I shook my head quickly.

"Come on, let's go." I whispered back.

"But where are we going?"

"To check if someone spotted us."

"Huh?"

I sighed slightly impatiently. We were nearing the bottom floor now. I turned to Wanda, who was following close behind, panting slightly.

"I meant the white Camry. It's obvious they followed us here. I mean of all the inns? And just as we know they're not in their car- someone delivers us a whole buffet worth of food. _On the house_. Come on, I know souls are generous, but this is a whole new level of weird. And me and you? Yeah, we're gonna check it out."

She was silent. I could tell she was too nervous to speak. She knew I had a point. We couldn't even hear each other breathing. We were _that _quiet. After one more corner, we finally reached the bottom level. "Shh…" I whispered to Wanda, gently pushing the stair doors open.

I couldn't see anything, so I pushed it just a little bit wider. I could see five silhouettes in the glow of the lights above. They were laughing about something. I tiptoed forward, closely behind Wanda and she closed the doors quietly behind us. I peeked around the corner.

"Do you think they ate it by now?" A familiar female voice asked. I saw the Room Service maid, the pretty receptionist, an older looking man with slight grey hair, a younger man in his mid twenties with spiky blonde hair and someone who looks like his brother but with dyed black hair and brown eyes instead of blue.

The old man laughed. "Yeah, they definitely looked hungry- probably finished off the whole trolley by now aye?"

The one with the spiky black hair chuckled. "It was lucky that we were on the road at the same time we saw it pull out of the desert. I'm having my team do sweeps now. I bet you they had something to do with the disappearances last year."

His 'brother' nodded, "Are you sure they looked suspicious?" he asked to the young woman. She nodded.

"When I went to deliver the food, all of them had their backs to me. One of them even had a shoddy home-made scar. That was when I knew. The only two who weren't facing in the other direction were the females. One was definitely a soul, eyes, scars, the whole thing, whereas the other one was looking at me through her hair. She was _Healthy Lifestyle_. What kind of soul reads that?" She laughed with the others.

I felt Wanda freeze from beside me. She couldn't see, but she could definitely hear. I felt myself freeze over. _We had to get out of here! Now! _But there was more.

"How much Dull did you put in it?" The old man asked the woman. She turned red.

"Just enough to make sure that they don't function right for a couple of days… or maybe a week or two." She bit her lip.

The blonde brother whistled. "They'll be lucky to survive that dose!"

His brother chuckled, punching him lightly on the shoulder. "When do we get them?" The woman asked.

They thought for a moment. "Let them feel at home first." The old man said dismissively.

The black haired brother laughed. "After eating all that, they won't feel a thing!"

They all laughed together. But that happiness and joy didn't reach me. My stomach twisted and dropped. Wanda was really quiet, but she suddenly grabbed my hand, yanking me back through the stair doors. She stuck out her little foot to stop it from slamming and gently but hastily closed it. She wheeled around to face me.

"What do we do? They're running sweeps!" She whispered urgently, her eyes darting back and forth between me, the stair doors and the staircase. Her breathing was very quick, and her hand was getting all clammy over mine.

"Do you think they ate it yet? Ohhh, but we told them not too!" She was reaching histerics. Her eyes were wild with fear, not for herself, but for the ones she loved.

"We've got to get out of here. Now." I whispered to her firmly, squeezing her hand. She nodded quickly, gulping. We both ran for it, back up the stairs. To me, it felt good, but to Wanda, I bet she felt like she was running a mountain. The closer we got the second floor the more urgent the situation seemed. Even Wanda felt it. I could hear her pushing herself, panting hard.

_Slam_. We both froze. I looked down the railway, at the bottom floor. I saw the artificial light die as the doors swung shut again. My stomach dropped as I heard the _clink clink _of high heels hitting metal steps.

"Crap! Run!" I whispered quickly to Wanda. Thank goodness we were wearing our runners, it muffled the sound of our footsteps. We ran straight through the doors, letting it slam from behind us.

"Hey-" The familiar woman called, but as the doors slammed, her voice got cut off. We sprinted our hardest to get to room 54. That was when we noticed it. The floor was completely quiet. No sound or light from under any doors except ours. The floor was completely empty except for us.

"Where is everyone?" Wanda asked me quickly as I urgently knocked on the door.

"Jared, Jared! Open u-" the door opened quickly.

"Quiet down!" Ian's whispered voice said to us as we pushed our way in. Well I did anyways. Wanda went straight into his arms.

"What's going on?" He whispered to Wanda, gently closing the door.

Jared and Kyle stood up to greet us. But my eyes were searching for the one thing- the food trolley. It stood untouched, covered, silver glistening. What self restraint the men had to go through, after years and years of hiding out and eating rations, they had delicacies thrust into them- and they waited for us to come back. If it wasn't such and urgent time, my heart would've swelled with pride.

"We've got to go! Grab your clothes! Gr-" I cut off. Just at that moment, all the lights flicked off. Every single one. The air-conditioner hummed to a stop too. Everything was quiet. Even the analogue clocks turned off. Everything was off. I froze- _everyone did_- I think.

"What the hell?" Kyle's muttered. Clatter, then _smash_! _Wow Kyle, smooth_. I thought, hearing him curse lightly.

"Mel? Mel, where are you?" Jared whispered, from somewhere on my left.

"Jared? Where are you?" I whispered back, reaching out my arms.

"Mel! Get away from the door!" He whispered back, urgent. And I remembered that I haven't moved a single step since entering. I ran for it, arms out in any direction.

"Ouch!" I cried out as I tripped over something soft on the floor.

"Mel?" Jared's voice called again, worried. At least he sounded close.

"That was my foot." Kyle's voice replied, as something touched my shoulder. I flinched away from it- a natural instinct, but it curled around my and pulled me up.

"You okay?" He whispered in the darkness.

"Uh, huh-" But I was broken off.

"Guys… Is anyone by the door?" Ian asked, from somewhere slightly further away, and if memory serves, somewhere between my bed and the windows.

"I don't think so…" Jared's voice replied, cautious. I tried to make my way towards the sound, and Kyle, still holding onto my shoulder, followed me.

"Did anyone _lock _the door?" Ian asked quietly- but we all knew the answer to that when we heard the knob turn.

_Swoosh, slam_! Sounded the door as it was pushed open.

"Come out, come out wherever you are!" Called out the voice of the blonde brother.

"Yeah, I saw you guys eavesdropping, so let me warn you- we got you outnumbered!" The high trill of the female called out.

"Humans… oh humans!" The male mocked. I heard his footsteps entering the room. We were all very quiet. I strained my ears- but I only heard to pair of footsteps from the door. They were bluffing. Their footsteps were heading towards Wanda and Ian, so before I could stop myself I called out-

"There's only two of them! Run for the door!"

And that was when all hell broke loose. There was a grunt, a knock, a couple of smashes and a whole lot of footsteps headed for the door.

"Crap! Get them!" The male voice cried out as we made the beeline. A hand clasped over my arm and I squealed. It pulled me back onto the floor.

"Ha! Gotcha!" The female voice crowed. But _thump!_

"Get off her!" I heard Jared's voice scream as she hit the floor with a moan. I felt him grab my hand.

"Come on, let's go!" He whispered as we entered the hallway.

"Mel? Kyle? Jared!" Wanda's voice called from inside the room. Me and Jared froze in our tracks.

"Ian! No, get off him!" She cried out. There was a couple of gasps and moans and thumps. I heard footsteps from the stairs direction run back towards the room. Smacks and thumps.

"Get. Off. My. Brother!" I heard Kyle grunt. In no time at all three shadows, all lit by the light of the moon in the open windows of the hallway shot out from the room.

"Mel? Let's go!" Wanda's voice called as something wrapped itself around my arm. We all sprinted towards the stairs.

"You- okay?" Jared asked between breaths.

"Yeah, just a slit lip!- Kyle set him - straight though!" Ian panted from ahead of me.

"Where are we going?" I asked quickly but quietly.

"Somewhere. Away. From. Them." Kyle grunted from somewhere in Ian and Wanda's direction. Jared squeezed my hand as we all ran in the darkness.

Just as suddenly as when it happened, the lights flicked on again.

We all froze in the act of running. They weren't bluffing, we were outnumbered. We were at the end of the Level 2 hallway, and there was people blocking the elevators and stairs. Jared was holding onto me, who was being held onto by Wanda, who was holding onto Ian, who was being protected by Kyle.

"Going somewhere?" The old man's voice asked from the crowd.

We were silent.

"Steve, cut the lights." The familiar female voice said from behind me. And just as suddenly, they flickered off again.

Someone knocked into me and _smash! _The windows for the hallway broke.

And that was all I remembered.

* * *

**Yay! Chapter 5! Whoohoo! (victory dance lol)**

**Yes, I am procastinating from having to do work hahaha- take that teachers!**

**Noo! I take it back don't fail me! I'll on that assignment right now....**

**:) Anywho, I just thought we weren't reading enough of Mel a****nd the raiders, so this is it!**

**(Sorry if you guys wanted Sunny lol)**

**Anyways, I really need to start those assignments hahaha, so byes!**

**Reviews please?**

**Kate xx**

* * *


	6. Tuned

Chapter 6 - Tuned

_**Sunny**__-_

Burns' was still looking at me expectantly. When I didn't say anything, he sighed. "I'm really sorry about your friend, wish I could help, but you have to understand we can't let you go."

**Stupid apologetic face, he's not sorry at all! **Jodi was stubbornly trying to read his cool mask of a face. She was a nice human being; she needed a reason to hate people.

_Jodi, he's just being courteous, he doesn't know Lily, so obviously he doesn't feel any sorrow, but at least he feels guilty._

She didn't reply; too busy wondering what life would be like back in the caves, with a healthy Lily, with a happy Kyle… _Without me_, I realized, understanding what my kind have done to this species. We had taken over a world that was capable of change, sure there was war and famine, but there was love in their hearts… _And we had wiped nearly all of them out. _I felt guilty, ashamed, I've never felt this way before and it stung- hard.

**No, not without you, I'd never let them send you away… **She was thinking about Ian and Wanda, seeing if it could fit out situation. Before I could reply, Burns had cut through my train of thought.

"Sunny? Sunlight, hey are you okay? You look kinda… preoccupied, with something. Did I say something wrong?" He gently took hold of my hand, and it jerked me back to the present.

"Huh? Oh, I'm fine… really…" I stammered, pulling my hand away, trying to nonchalantly look like I'm brushing away my hair with it. Looking across the cellar/ hall I could see Rachel smiling at me widely. Tom looked uninterested, and Blake was looking at the ground, his eyebrows furrowed. Nate was eyeing Burns; I could tell that they were silently communicating.

"Come on now, potatoes don't grow and pick themselves you know," he joked, leading the way over to where the crowd was. Everyone stared at me as I walked past. Some were angry, some were distrustful and some were just plain furious. The hall was instantly quiet; you could hear a pin drop in this cellar.

**I wonder how the chores work here. I wonder if they have tight 'security'… **I read Jodi's plan, she was planning a runner when everyone was sleeping.

_I doubt they'd let me out, do you think they have underground showers, or lavatories? _With that thought, my body's physical needs took over. I realized it's been two days since I've been to the bathroom.

_Crap, if I ask them, they'd think I'm trying to pull a blanket under their eyes, just great. _But I followed Burns to where Nate and the others were waiting.

**Just ask them! We really need to go!**

I finally got there. Burns ushered me over to join their group. Rachel grinned at me encouragingly and Blake was just thinking to himself.

"Sunny! - err. What's wrong?" Rachel was examining my face. I don't reply, I was in too much pain. "Is it the people here? Because when they get to know you they'll understand." I shook my head quickly.

"What's wrong?" Nate asked in a monotone, without as much interest.

**Screw him! I just wanna slap him in the face! **

I hushed her. _No need to be rude! _"I really, really need to go to the bathroom!" I said quickly, saying about a word in a second.

Nate raised his eyebrow. Blake looked up and half-smiled at me, his emerald eyes mesmerizing. Rachel giggled. "Of course! Silly us, how could we forget? I'll take her daddy." She said, smiling at me gently. She reached out, waiting for my hand.

Burns' shifted slightly. Nate looked like he might burst a vein in his forehead, and Tom looked really alert when I took it uncertainly.

He cleared his throat, but it was Blake who spoke for the first time. "Rachel can take… Sunny… and I'll watch over Rachel. You guys go ahead to the fields, we'll catch up."

He was looking at Nate, but Burns was staring at him. Rachel squeezed my hand gently. "Dad's really protective." She whispered, but not quiet enough, as everyone heard it in this silent room. I couldn't help but smile, and Nate looked uncertain. He shifted slightly.

"I'm… not sure, yes, Blake you take her. In fact, take Burns too." He said hurriedly, looking apologetically towards Rachel.

**Hey! That's rude!**

"Dad!" She hissed, "Sunny is not a monster- I don't _need_ Burns, or Blake!". I squeezed her hand tightly before letting go. Something jerked my body to life, swaying me towards Nate's direction. I suddenly felt very angry.

"Fine! Let them follow! But I can't wait to see your face when you found out you were wrong about us!"

The whole cellar was silent. Every single pair of eyes was on me.

_Jodi! How- how did you that?_ I spread myself out towards all my muscles and tendons- they were mine again.

**I-I don't know, he just made me so angry! And I just wanted to smack him!**

_Well I'm glad you didn't- that could've gotten us shot._

"Uhh, sorry, I mean me. I do mind, though about you talking about me like an animal." I said, embarrassingly trying to cover up my self-dug up secret.

Rachel was looking at me with understanding; however Nate was staring at me like I'm a bear who has rattled her cage for too long. Burns cleared his throat, and chatter started up again as people began to move about, heading towards their morning chores. I could hear some of it too;

"Total nutcase!"

"Nate was treating her like an animal! She is unwelcome, but that was no means of hospitality!"

"Wow, Seeker's have rage?"

" But I _don't want to plant carrots_!"

"I hate it how after you dig it up, you have to _fill it up_!"

"I. Hate. Farming. Sprouts! Argh!"

Tom cleared his throat. "Well, so be it then, I'll see at the carrots' field honey." I liked Tom. He wasn't interested in chit chat, he knew what needed to be done, and just got to it.

_Reminds me of Jared._

**Mmm, he seems like quiet the trooper- unlike Nate. **She hissed angrily.

"Come on Sunny! I bet you really need to go now." Rachel happily grabbed my hand and headed for the right hallway.

Blake cleared his throat. "You first." He gestured for Burns.

"Take care!" Nate called as he went towards the left stairs, following the crowd.

**The nerve of that man.**

_Yes, I've never felt the feeling hatred before. It burns funny._

She sighed slightly. I felt her sorrow.

_Yes, I miss him too._

**I loved Kyle just so much….**

I didn't reply. She was silent as I quickly followed in Rachel's bouncing footsteps. The hall was full of mis-shaped doors of all colors. In front of each door was little carvings, we moved so fast I couldn't distinguish it from anything.

The men were silent from behind us. That made me remember something. "Hey, Rachel? Don't I need, like a blindfold?". That took her by surprise.

"Huh?" She asked, slowing down to look at me. "Blindfold? What? No. Why?"

I shrugged.

_They are making this just too easy. I don't trust it. I only trust Rachel._

**Me neither. Who doesn't blindfold their kidnapped person?**

Blake and Burns finally caught up. I realized that even if Burns' was taller, Blake would still catch up. He stopped by Rachel's side and ran his pale fingers through his jet black hair, staring at the ground forcefully again.

_What's up with that?_

I could see her shrug from inside my mind. Burns' answered my question. "You don't need a blindfold because this little hideout is surrounded by kilometers of woods. Even if you do … escape. You'd surely just get lost and starve."

_Well. That changes a lot._

**Did you HEAR his tone? It was like he didn't even care! Well, about me anyway, he'd probably just cut you out and save you. You know, that is if we were starving to death.**

I ignored her.

"So you're only way of survival is here. With me." He continued, this time gentler.

Rachel nodded, but Blake looked up, staring hard at Burns'. "With _us_." Blake corrected tightly, and walked ahead of us.

"Oh, geez Louise, right-o, you must be feeling awful, lets get going." Rachel pulled me forward once again, running this time. As we neared the end of the hallway with all the doors we can to a fork, the middle and left corridors both had stairs heading downwards. Blake headed up through the right corridor, and me, Rachel and Burns followed quietly behind.

The air smelt different in this corridor. Back at the caves everything smelt musty and stagnant, back in the cellar it smelt of wood pine. Here, it smelt of pine too, but different, it smelt ventilated, fresh; it also had a different exotic smell you can only pick out if you strain your nose. When we got there, he let Rachel and me pass by, to walk with Burns.

The higher we headed up, the better the pine and that exotic smell smelt. It also had a different sent, like bark- or upturned soil. I could hear different things too, aside from our breathing, I could hear rustling, and distant chirping, echoes of wind forces against a rough wall and a strange rumbling sound.

The more we traveled, the louder the rumbling got. It was also accompanied with little splashy sounds. Jodi put two and two together faster than I did. "It's a stream! Water!!" She called out happily, and for a moment we forgot whatever physical pain we were in.

_How did you do that? Again? You weren't even angry Jodi… I'm losing my grip… _My mind wandered away. Maybe I was getting too used to the idea that this mind was no longer my own. The more I grow to understand her, the more my hold on this body weakens..

**We'll think about it later, don't let it bother you Sunny- but a stream- that could be good!**

"Yeah, it's a river actually; it runs downstream, through the forest. At the edge of a cliff just up here is where the water flows away, we made a little shack to use as the outhouse just before I moved in." Blake said matter-of-factly from behind.

**Well that explains the wind, so… we live near a cliff in a forest with a river. Beats me, I was more of a science person- not geography.**

I laughed humorlessly in my mind. _I didn't even know this planet before I moved here. All I knew was that it was one of those warm planets. You know, with warm-blooded life._

Rachel gripped my hand even harder as we went further up. Little rays of light were shining through from ahead. My knees and ankle hurt so much- from as far as I could remember after leaving the caves, all I've been doing was running or walking. The chirping slowly got louder and the exotic smell divided itself. First it was just exotic and now there was much more scents from the one- like frangipani, and roses, pine and grass… and cherries.

Finally, we saw the opening. It was a cave mouth, made entirely of wood and clay, it looked really sturdy too, and whoever made it was delicate with their work. The wood stuck to the clay, as I noticed, made little patterns, forming shapes; of little moons, suns, flowers, and houses. I stroked the bark and clay gently; it felt smooth and rough at the same time.

Rachel stepped out first, into a forest opening. I couldn't see much from behind her. In my rush to get outside, my foot missed the last step, and I fell backwards. "Whoa, hey!" A surprised voice said from behind me. Strong arms caught me mid-fall, and they pulled me back into his chest. I peeked out from under my lashes, Blake was looking down at me, smiling an annoyingly, painstakingly beautiful smirk kind of smile.

"Watch your step," he joked as he put me back onto my feet. "That's the second time I had to catch you from falling." My face heated up, and I could tell everyone could see the color rising in my cheeks. _So he was the guy in the van_…

"Thanks." I stuttered, looking back into his jade eyes. Burns was also there, he walked between me and Blake, blocking him entirely from view.

"You okay?" He asked, his silver eyes worried. I nodded quickly. Rachel tugged at my hand again, and I was so sure I heard Blake sigh.

"Come on now!" She chirped happily. Pulling me up, she stepped aside and watched my reaction as I saw the surroundings. The pine trees rose up around 2o meters tall, with long thick braches that sprouted leaves. Surprisingly enough, they didn't block out any light, the forest floor was just as sunny as the sky itself. Surrounding the trees, and sprouting from the ground were thick dark green bushes with little red and purple splotches, of when later I found out was cherries.

The grass was green and tall, the birds were happily chirping from ahead, flowers blooming from the ground… It was beautiful. I just stood there and watched the beauty. This was the most beautiful thing on this plant I have seen so far. Except for Kyle. The rushing of the nearby river reminded me of why we were here in the first place- and Rachel read my mind.

She gently tugged me along before turning around and staring the boys down. "You stay here. If you move an inch closer I'll tell dad- and Tom." She was serious about them staying there but the last part was only a joke.

"Yes ma'am." Blake laughed as he saluted her. Burns just looked at me, it was kind of uncomfortable, his silver eyes felt like a probe.

She pulled me into the forest until I thought we were walking right besides rushing sound. The forest opened up again to reveal a majestic river. It was huge, with little sharp rocks and pristine water. I watched the sun rays reflect of the brilliant silver-blue-transparent color that the water was.

"Okay, I'll wait here, but see that shack all the way down there?" Rachel pointed behind me, sure enough there was a cute little shack made out of wood right on the edge of the water. And on the land too, as far as I could see.

"That shack is on the edge of the cliff, it's kind of the outline of where you're not supposed to walk over, because then we'd never see you again." She shrugged the last part off because, "I know you wouldn't want to run away. You're not dangerous like that." I nodded my understanding and walked quickly over to the shack. Peering at the river beside me, I saw plenty of sharp rocks down the bottom, which tells me that the water isn't very deep, probably just over half a meter off the ground.

The shack loomed over me like a tower. It had a door, mad out of a rather thick piece of wood, which surprised me, because considering the location, I'd thought the shack would be washed away or at the bottom of the cliff in a wooden mess. When I moved the makeshift door open, I realized that it wasn't very heavy, it just looked so.

The shack was built on the edge of the cliff, halfway on and off the river. All its side walls, that didn't face the river, stood three meters tall, and there was no roof. The other wall, facing the river was only a meter tall, so we could look out as we did our business. It bothered me, but I realized, the river was so wide, even if you were on the other side, you couldn't see me very well. The light shone in and I realized that it wasn't so bad; it was designed to have the waste flow directly downstream, so we wouldn't even have to see it.

After I was done, I walked out and peered off the cliff. It was really high up, maybe about 200 meters, and the end of the river formed a light water fall. You could just distinctively see the pool of water down the bottom. The trees also grew wild down there, and all you could see from up here was the river and the bushy green tops of trees. No land, whatsoever. The earth began to swim a little bit, and I could feel my body swaying.

**Cut that out! **I had forgotten, Jodi had really bad vertigo.

Quickly, I pushed myself back towards land and nearly ran towards where Rachel was waiting for me on the edge of the forest. When I reached her, I could see her examining my face. "You don't look real good Sunny, want a rest for today?"

I shook my head quickly. I wanted to see the grounds of my new 'prison'. "No, it's just nausea, really. Bad. Fear. Of. Heights." I could feel the eggs and bread I had this morning come up. I keeled over onto my knees and put my head in my hands, breathing hard. I don't like the feel of nausea, hope it never comes back.

Rachel kneeled beside me and stroked my back, but nothing came out. It was just a brief swing of nausea and dry heaving in my mouth. I pulled myself us slowly, and looked down at her. "I'm fine. Really."

She raised her eyebrow at me as she pulled herself up. "Are you sure? I'll let daddy know you're resting."

Once again, I shook my head firmly. "No, I'll be able to plant those potatoes," I said, laughing as I remembered it has been months since I have tried any vegetables fresh.

Rachel nodded and smile at me encouragingly, "Come on, the boys will be waiting."

When we got back to the clearing, there was a different feel in the atmosphere. It was colder. Blake and Burns refused to look at each other, and had both their faces set in hard lines. Burns looked kind of funny, as his face was usually used to gentleness, and Blake still looked as striking as he did before- only angrier. They were facing in different directions with their arms crossed.

Rachel and I stared at the two stubborn men before making our way back into the cave headed for the cellar.

"What's up with Blake and Burns?" I whispered to Rachel when I heard them entering from behind us. She shrugged.

"They don't usually argue. It's probably the stress of having another soul here. You know how protective Burns can get. He and dad, well Richard and dad, have been besties since grade 3, and when Burns came into the group, he took over as second dad here."

I nodded. This place has a history of its own.

___________________________________________________________________________

_**Lilly**_-

My head really did hurt. My side was numb and I felt like I was floating inside a dimension of radio waves. Sometimes, just sometimes- I swear I'd hear my friends talking. They'd just tune in and out. Just yesterday I heard Doc. He said something like this; "….raiders, I hope they're alright. We really need that Deep Heal; she keeps on having little seizures."

_Who's having little seizures? What's going on?_

And out of nowhere, just a couple of hours ago today, I heard Candy, the doctor, talking to herself about Sunny, and how she's really scared about her.

_What's wrong with Sunny? Where am I?_

This little radio connectivity world I was living in was a brilliant shade of purple; my favorite color of Lilac. It glowed, but not as brightly as Wes' world did. No, this Lilac world had a different glow. It was a cold glow. Everyday it got colder. With the cold, I felt dread, like all the happy glow that I took with me from Wes' world was being replaced by this cold Lilac glow.

There was only one more thing with me in this brilliant Lilac world. It was a gate, down at the far side. It was a beautiful gate. Carved and made from the most brilliant gold, it was old fashioned and elegant. From the other side of the gate, you could see nothing., no light, no darkness. It was just the end of the Lilac. I've never been close to it though. That was where it had been the coldest.

Sometimes, the radio would tune in really, really loud and I would hear lots and lots of voices. One time I heard Trudy. She didn't say much, except for "Tell Lucinda I'll be here all night." I could hear her crying. It was weird though.

The Lilac world was never-ending except for the side with the gate. When I head Trudy cry, I floated towards the sound, but I never got closer or further, it was like I wasn't moving at all.

I just wanted to scream, "Trudy! What's wrong, don't cry!", but even then, I don't think she'd hear me.

There was this one time though. I was really sad and alone, I started calling Wes' name. It got too cold here and I needed him. Instead of hearing Wes' I tuned in to the others.

"Did you hear that?" I think it was Candy.

"She said Wes! Lily? Lily, honey?" Trudy, definitely.

"Check her pulse, then the bandages. Lily, can you hear me? Open your eyes Lily, everyone is so worried." Doc, I was pretty sure.

But after that I got no transmission. None, nothing, it was like I had no connection.

Then I realized, _Was I dead? Where am I? In the in-between?_

Sometimes, when I got really cold, and I could feel nothing else, the gold doors would swing open. But only half-way. When I got closer to the cold area, I'd hear either Doc, or Trudy, or Lucinda or even Candy call my name.

They'd always say something like;

"Don't give up!"

"Hold on Lily!"

"Please, please don't go!"

And when I'd stop to listen, I'd turn around again and find out the gold doors have closed.

One time, that Stryder kid came into connectivity range.

"Lily? Are you okay? It's Jamie here. I was just wondering how you were doing. You don't look to well. But I know you Lily, you're a strong person, just hang in there, Mel and Wanda will be back soon. I made you a Get Well card in class today. The drawings are real ugly, but I want you to wake up and see it. Doc says I have to go now, but I'll check on you later."

I felt really happy when I heard his voice. He was real nice. When I heard it, the gold doors disappeared! It did, but it came back. When my side started to ache and numb.

It came back real clear and close too. The gold even shines mockingly from afar.

I don't know what the doors mean, but I could sometimes feel Wes' presence from the other side, even if I'm nowhere near it.

I've been thinking, next time they open, I'm going to cross over. I hated this world.

I was in pain, and I had lost everything. I just wanted to be with Wes.

The only thing that kept me from floating over there at Olympic speed and climbing the gold gate was the random tune-ins.

Everyone would leave really sweet messages. They were so close, but I could never reach them. Close, but out of reach.

I don't know what I wanted more, my friends or Wes. They were really important to me.

....It was getting cold again. I ached and ached at the side. My head felt heavy, and my limbs were weighed down by invisible chains.

_Wssshh_.

I turned my head, and this time the gold gates have fully opened, and I've made up my mind.

I felt peaceful, I knew I had made the right choice…

* * *

_  
Shout out to all my reviewers so far, who have all helped me develop this story (:_

_**ivamp3**__, _**siramad21**_, __**TopKat90,**__**LissaLang**__, __, __**Princess Skye**__ & __**xxMarxbbyxx**_

_Yay! Round of applause lol :P  
_

* * *

**  
The holidays are coming teehee!**

**My assignments are finally dwindling so I'll have more time to write.**

**Lol, anyways, I just thought well, we havn't**

**Heard much of Lily, so I'd add a little Lily snippet in so,**

**Enjoy! And keep the reviews coming!**

**Ps. there will be more on how Mel and Wanda are going soon :)**

**Kate xx  
**

* * *


	7. Separation

* * *

Chapter 7 - Separation

**_Wanda_**-

The glass from behind me shattered. I gripped Ian and Mel's hands so tight they ached. "Get down!" Jared yelled from Ian's side, as a second window smashed. Ian forcefully knocked me to the ground, and I hit my head- hard. Everything in the darkness was blurring.

Something smashed once more and Jared called out, "We got to get out of here! Now, get moving!"

"Get them!" The snide female called, and out of the darkness, hands started to grope and pull at me. Ian was trying really hard to hold on, but he was slipping….

"Wanda!!" He yelled as his attacker pulled him into the crowd. I was groping at the carpet, kicking at whoever was holding onto my legs, pulling myself forwards….

Another window smashed, and then a sudden "ARGH!" from a man…but this time everything ended when I heard that earth shattering scream. It broke through the dark hallway like a siren.

"MELANIE!" Jared's cry broke the silence, and my hold on the fraying carpet got loose…

_It was over… It was all over, we had lost._

___________________________________________________________________________

**_Melanie_**- **(10 minutes earlier)**

"Going somewhere?" The old man's voice asked from the crowd.

We were silent.

"Steve, cut the lights." The familiar female voice said from behind me. And just as suddenly, they flickered off again.

Someone knocked into me and _smash! _The windows on the side the hallway broke.

Wanda gripped my hand really hard into the dark, and Jared pulled me behind him. Everything was silent, and we could all hear each other breathing, waiting for someone to make a move.

My chest ached; I had a feeling my heart's loud beating was going to give us away. _Please, please God, not now, just not now! _But I knew it was hopeless. God doesn't listen, if he did, me parents wouldn't have bought the Seekers on me and Jamie…. _Jamie_…

_Oh, Jamie! I promise you I'll get out! _But my silent plea was interrupted by another smash- it sounded very close too.

Jared squeezed my hand even tighter and suddenly, taking me by surprise, knocked me to the floor. "Get down!" He called, and I could just see his faint silhouette ram into the next window, smashing it to smithereens.

"We got to get out of here! Now, get moving!" He screamed, leaning down and lifting me off the ground and into his arms just as I felt someone grab my ankle.

"No, no, Jared I'm slipping!" I screamed, wrapping my arm around his waist, kicking the soul by my leg.

"Get off her!" He yelled, swinging his arm out in my direction, but when he did that my grip cam loose and I hit the floor with a solid _thump!_

_Argh no! _I thought, frantically pulling at the carpet on the floor, trying to desperately get away from my attacker, but they were strong, and a with heavy yank, I was clean off the floor again, but this time I slammed into the wall.

Pain struck from somewhere on my back, and it rapidly spread down to my face and shoulders to the rest of my limbs.

"Wanda!" Ian called from down the hall, but I didn't get to trace his voice, because just then, hard, rough hands grabbed my thigh and pulled me in the opposite direction.

"Get off me!" I screeched, grabbing onto anything. The hallway was so packed I managed to grab another person's leg.

"ARRGHH! Get off me!" someone who sounded like Kyle grunted, kicking off my grip.

"Kyle, Kyle!" I screamed desperately, withering and kicking against my attacker, who was pulling me further and further down the hallway.

"Melanie?" Kyle replied, slightly far away now. He was blocked with figures of other people, trying to pin him down.

"Kyle!" I called desperately, watching his shadow in the moonlight being swarmed by a mass of souls. Still grabbing air, I waved my arms about, trying to grab anything.

My luck must be coming in because I managed to grab something long, slender and metal with my hand. The further my attacker was dragging me, I pulled the heavy metal pole thing too, until it got caught and temporarily restricted him from pulling me anymore. With that sudden change he accidently let go of my leg.

"Argh, come back here! Get back you -!" He didn't have time to finish. As he was saying that, I crept back up, balled my fist and slammed it as hard as I can towards the lump in the darkness I hoped to be his head.

"ARGH!" He yelled, angry now. He lurched in my direction with arms opened wide, hunting his prey.

_Crap!_ I thought and turned to quickly run in the opposite direction, but my runners got caught on that long metal thing, which turned out to be a floor lamp that was still plugged in- and I landed with a thud. Strong arms wrapped themselves around my torso and lifted me off the ground. He tried to lift me over his shoulder, but he couldn't see how tall I was and accidently whipped himself in that face with my knees. Taking advantage of his momentary lack of attention I punched him as hard as I could and bit him just as hard somewhere between the neck and shoulders.

"I"LL SHOW YOU!" He screamed and threw me. Too bad he couldn't see the window covered by scratchy dark curtains. Everything around me smashed. …

It even sounded really beautiful, like crystals falling into a wet floor… And then the ground from underneath me dropped, I screamed.

___________________________________________________________________________

**_Wanda_**_-_

"MELANIE!" Jared's cry broke the silence. The hustle and bustle around me stopped insanely.

All of a sudden the lights turned on again, making me go temporarily blind. I blinked against the white glow and searched desperately for Melanie.

"Jeremy?! What did you do?"

"What happened?"

"Grab the prisoners!!"

The person holding onto me gripped so hard it hurt. Someone was also kneeing me to the ground. It made my back ache, and I tried to shift under it, but whoever it was just kneed harder. And I couldn't help it. "Ow! Get off my back!"

"Wanda? Wanda? Where are you? Jared??" Ian's voice was muffled from all the way down the hallway. I couldn't see him, and I shifted and thrusted even harder.

"Ian? Ian?" Kyle replied from down the other side of the hallway.

"Oh, for crying out loud shut the up!" The voice of one of the brothers called.

Instantly a thick, pale hand covered my mouth, with much force too. From all around the hallway I could hear more grunting, probably of my family resisting order. I slumped, my little body was worn out to the core, it had never had as much excitement and fear as it has faced tonight.

_How weird, this person's hands smell like hokkein noddles.. Cherry sauce… and fresh strawberries.. Must be the chef, _I thought. All I could see were the backs of people's shoes… like someone's traditional high cut black converses, aqua green pumps… _I've never seen these shoes before… Maybe Pet has. _And crocs. Pet's memory showed certain distaste at crocs, she called them... Un-look-at-able's. Something about being really comfortable, yet disgusting.

"Jeremy, what the _hell_ happened?" The voice of the other brother demanded. He sounded close, like he was just behind me.

"She was just this crazy little woman… and, and… I didn't see where I chucked her-" the deep male voice didn't finish because-

"OW!" -came the voice of a female somewhere down the hall.

"OH, YOU SON OF A-!!" Jared's voice was loud, angry and really scared at the same time. And he was never scared, except when it comes to Melanie. His voice was once again muffled.

"Shut up!" the female hissed at him. "He bit me Mark!" Her voice was falsely hurt and sweet. Even I didn't need to be human to realize she was sucking up to whoever Mark was. She stage sniffled a little bit too. Even though I couldn't see her, I bet she's looking at Mark with wide eyes, probably holding out her hand…

"Let me see that…" The first brother said softly. Footsteps headed down the hall. Silence.

"What about the other one? The female?" I froze. It was the snidely obnoxious woman.

Quick footsteps ran in the direction of the fire stairs if my memory served correct. Something loud, crinkly and sharp sounded through the silent hallway. I tried to look up, but my silvery blonde hair created a shadowy veil between me and the world. Through the light I could see from far away, a lone figure standing at a funny misshaped window. All the edges were pointing in different directions.

"WHERE THE HELL IS SHE?" The voice of the second brother called from the window. His shadow was now leaning out, swaying and turning, as if he was an eagle hunting his mice.

"Dunno, Ice!" The voice of the deep male voce called back.

"Well you lost her! You better find her- oh so be it Damon will be very MAD!"

_Damon? How come that sounds familiar….?_

I took a deep breath and tried to blow out some of the blonde hair from my face. It worked. I squinted out, and saw that nearly all the souls were at the broken window now. Some were still hunched over figures on the floor.

"Nothing! We've got nothing!" Another female voice called from outside the window.

The second brother sighed desperately, kicking the motel wall in disgust.

"All right," he boomed loudly as he turned around. "Let's book 'em."

I struggled against my captives roughly. _Book 'em? _Pet's memory provided me with a bounded stack of paper with writing in it, and another memory told me that they were going to transport us. _Transport??..._

The big hand covering my mouth quickly moved up to my eyes, and the knee in my back dug in harder.

"Shh, shh, don't fight now…" A taunting male voice whispered at me as a weird fluffy thing covered my mouth. It smelt strangely of raspberries.

_Oh._

___________________________________________________________________________

**_Melanie_**-

The winds rushed in a different direction from me… It was headed up. My stomach was all funny, I wanted to scream but then I couldn't… It was like I had no more stomach or guts.

Out of nowhere, something slender, cold and hard hit me in all different places.

"A-Arghh!" I screamed as the pain shot through my limbs, back around then burned away my body. My head stung and made me feel dizzy.

Everything ached so much. I slowly pushed myself up through my arms, they were screaming in protest though.

I couldn't see much because something long and sticky was covering my eyes. Then I realized it was my hair. Pulling myself into a sitting position, I numbly tried to wipe the hair from my eyes, but that sticky thing keeping the hair to my face was warm.

Shaking, I moved my arm into the direction of the closest car park lamp. Something dark and kind of purple-ish and red-ish was tricking down my arm. Slowly reaching my for my head with the other arm I realized that the whole back of my head was all sticky.

"Ohh..my," I whispered, taking deep breaths, staring at my broken body in the light of the car park lamps. My clothes were all cut off and torn. Through the rips I could see blood oozing slowly out, coloring my jeans a weird purple. Looking down at my chest I realized that the whole front of my white tee was no longer white. It had red coming down from the cuts in my head, and was outlined with yellow and brown. Sweat and dirt.

My arms were no better, everything was scratched, and I think I might have seriously cut out a piece of my right elbow, it was bleeding so much.

Looking around, I noticed that I had managed to land on someone else's car. Someone's white Camry.

Someone's white Camry with familiar plates and dent on the left side.

Looking up, I noticed that the hallway lights from the second floor were back on again.

_Better get myself outta here, _was my first reaction. Shifting slightly, a huge jolt of pain and heat ran through my right ankle.

I couldn't help myself- so I screamed silently off into the night, with my fist in my mouth. Looking down, I noticed that it was twisted kind of funny.

_Wsssh._

My head snapped around. On the other side of the car park, I noticed that the doors from the lobby have swung open. Quickly, pressing myself down onto the car, I shifted to the dark side, trying not to move my ankle. I noticed that there were five of them, all wielding torches.

Sliding off the Camry quietly- my back and torso ached, they were just getting used to the rest. Everything burned again. Shoving my fist in my mouth, I moaned in pain. Slowly sliding my right foot off the no longer white Camry, I hopped to the darkness side of the car park, grunting in pain with each move. Every muscle that I moved ached and stung in protest. My right elbow was giving me so much pain, not to mention my ankle.

"WHERE THE HELL IS SHE?" That voice came out of nowhere, and gave me such a surprise, I tripped. My ankle screamed in pain as I landed on it, and the rough gravel of the floor jabbed me and teased my many deep cuts.

That was the voice of one of the brothers. Feeling the urgency I slowly pulled myself by my arms as I could no longer feel my ankle. Luckily just five more meters ahead was the bushes that separated the Inn from a convenience store and the main road.

I pulled, and pulled and pulled- "Where is she?" A female voice asked from just three cars down. My body iced over, and my arms acted on their own accord, pulling me forwards even faster, letting the rest of my body trail behind. I. Couldn't. Get. Caught.

"She can't have gone far. Look at the mess she left on Mark's car." A male voice replied. I froze. They were _really close _now. Turning my head slowly, I saw the glow of the torches on Mark's car. Then one of the torches shone in my direction. I was freezing cold with fear.

Thankfully, the side mirror blocked them from seeing my bloody face.

"Nothing. Can't see her…" Replied the deep male voice that I'd now recognize from anywhere; he was the man who threw me.

I sighed silently, pulling myself again, now even faster. They couldn't see me from behind the car.

"Dunno, Ice!" That male voice called back towards the man by the window.

Yes, my arms had nearly reached the bushes… _Just a little bit more_….

"Hey wait a minute," the female voice cut through my little moment of relief. "Look at that, it's a trail, see? She slid off the car here…" The light shone perilously close to me.

Quickly I pulled myself into the bushes just in time to have five flashlights shone in the position that I was in just ten seconds ago.

"Well you lost her! You better find her- oh so be it Damon will be very MAD!" The voice of Ice, the brother boomed again from the window. Shaking, I quietly pushed myself further into the bushes.

_Crack! _I had sat on a crinkly dry leaf. The sound boomed into the silent car park.

"Did you hear that?" The female voice said quietly, ignoring Ice. The glow of five flashlights shone right onto my eyes. They stepped closer, and closer, until I could swear they could hear me breathe.

Pulling myself together really, really slowly, ignoring the pain from my ankle, I wrapped an arm around myself, hoping they wouldn't see me in the darkness.

The man who smashed me through the window stepped through the bushes, "Here, I wouldn't need it; the light will scare it away if it's still here." He said, turning around and handing the woman his flashlight.

Covering my mouth with one hand, and holding myself together with the other, I shook in fear as he stepped just three feet away from me. The leaves and twigs crunched underneath his feet.

He stepped further in the bushes, waving his arms about calling "Here kitty, kitty, kitty, here now.." I shook slightly in the darkness, breathing quickly through my covered mouth. He suddenly turned a full ninety degrees and faced my direction, walking towards me with his arms outstretched- I thought I was going to die. He got closer and closer until he stopped right in front of me, his shoes barely an inch from the tips of mine.

Frozen in fear, I shook quietly, and realized that I was silently crying. Tears were running down my face. My hand was shaking, and my ankle was throbbing in protest of actually having to be used.

He stood in front of me, staring over the top of my head in silence. Quickly, he waved his hands around and found nothing. Then he stooped to my level and searched again, I was staring him in the eyes, and yet he still couldn't see me. His hands missed my neck by less than three cm.

_Just go. Just go, please, _I pleaded to him from inside my head as he just stooped there. Sighing quietly, he stood up, shaking his head at the others from behind him.

"Not here, you should go with Fallen Springs and check the convenience store. Go! We don't want Damon to find out that we lost a human on our turf. I said GO!" He boomed, leaving the bushes.

I shook in relief, but still remained silent. A young woman and a tall man nodded at him, and quickly jogged through the bushes, right past me- headed for the convenience store.

_Who was this Damon, and why are they so scared? _I didn't have time to think much though as another female called back up to Ice, "Nothing! We've got nothing!"

I peeked from under my hair at his reflection in the second building, he wasn't the only one there now- there was much more shadows. He got really angry and I think he kicked the walls. He turned around, said something then the lights flashed off again.

Waiting quietly, I watched the three remaining souls walk back towards the Inn. I still just sat there, waiting. My ankle and elbows hurt so much now, I think it might be seriously infected from all the dirt and grime.

Soon after, the tall man and the young woman walked back again, right through the bushes, narrowly missing me.

"What the hell are we going to tell Ice?" The woman said. "That we lost her?"

"No, Jeremy lost her." The man replied. "But the bigger question is 'what is Ice going to say to Damon?"

They were getting far away now, and the last thing I heard was the female say, "I'd hate to be Ice, after those disappearances in this area, Damon has been running on a thin line…"

I watched them walk over towards the Inn again.

_Damon. Funny, he sounds kind of familiar, but I don't know why. _I know I have definitely heard of him… But my thoughts were cut short as the lobby doors swung open again just as the two souls reached it.

A mass of people walked out, some holding something over there shoulders. I squinted hard at one, _Ohmigod, Jared? _They were carrying my family away..

I stared as the souls walked past the cars, three people were holding the boys each, and only on person was holding the frail body of Wanda. They were all limp.

I turned ice cold. _They… they… aren't, are they?_

Tears started to flow again as I watched a black pickup truck drive into the lot. Someone hopped out and opened the back doors. The first couple of them just threw the boys in. I felt anger, _is that how they treated all the bodies_? I had a sudden urge to run forwards and fight, fight to release them, but I realized that in the condition I was in, I can't run. Let alone fight. I'd just get caught, and then no one would be able to save them.

But I knew deep down that weren't dead, who ever this Damon is he'll need the bodies to track out the rest of my family.

I watched as the last person put Wanda's body in gently before slamming the doors shut. Some men hopped into different cars, while some headed back for the Inn.

Ice and his brother walked back to their car, staring at the damage.

Ice's brother shook his head at him, said something that sounded like 'Damon' and 'car wash' before opening his side door. Ice said nothing as he took the drivers seat.

Soon, the black pick up truck was leaving the car park, followed by the other cars. As the white Camry drove through the light I finally saw all the blood I had smeared on it, not to mention the dent of where I had landed.

I shivered quietly in the cold night. The car park was empty.

_My friends were gone_… It had hit me really hard just now. And I don't even know where they were heading. I was badly injured, and I'm the only human for what I think is to be miles worth of soul inhabited land. Taking a deep breath, I let my limbs roll loose. I just sat there.

Finally I knew what had to be done. They were my friends and I was going to save them anyways. I just needed a plan. I was a one-woman rebel human now. But first I needed to find a Clinic, fast.

Sighing quietly, I stood up, grabbing a long thick stick, and using it as a walking stick, slowly hopped out of the bushes. Grunting in pain with my every move.

_Good luck guys, _I thought about Aaron, Andy and Brandt, _hope you had better luck than us tonight._

* * *

**_Yay! My Chapter 7 is now finito! :)_**

**_Last 2 weeks of school for this term starts tomorrow, yipee! Lol._**

**_Anywho, I hoped you guys like this story aye?_**

**_Haha, yes, if you're probably wondering I did take a part of Stephenie Meyers original peice from the Host about when Mel jumped off the elevator shaft, poor girl now she's been thrown off a building- sorta._**

**_If no-one reviews then I'll assume no one's readin and I'll stop, so yeah, if you like/hate/whatever review._**

**_xx Kate_**

* * *


	8. Reformatory

**Shout out to all my reviwers :P**

Lewislahver127- Loving the fact that you 'Luv luv luv' my story aye :P

Madam Scragz- I will indeed do something in Blakes mind for you lol

ivamp3- Lol, loving you for reviewing every one of my Chapters :)

O'SheaFan- thanks for the support lol :)

Siramad21 & LissaLang- for being there since the beginning, xx

TopKat90- for all the support, and because she worries about Sunny lol- and I just wanted to tell her that when I got my new furniture for my new place, they delivered it to the wrong house LOL.

Princess Skye & xxMarzbbyxx- for reviewing even through my shoddy chapters :)

brownie . com- this chapter's for you lol, so that you don't have to do you're homework just yet. And have fun with the 6 months left of school ;)

Chapter 8 - Reformatory

_**Kyle**_-

I was lying on something soft and lumpy. It felt nice indeed. Until I heard a mysterious _beep beep beep_. _What the hell_ _man, I'm resting here!_

Blinking, white light shone from above. It was so intense it blinded me for more than a couple of minutes. Trying to block out the light, I tried to swing out my arms, but realized that something was constricting them down. "What the fu-"

I was practically belted down onto a white mattress in a middle of a plain white room. They strapped all my limbs down to the sides, and tightened them so much that if I turned on one side, the other would then scream in protest- so I had to look at the freakishly bright lamp above me. It wasn't the only thing different; I was dressed in completely white clothing- like a mental person in a institute. There was also a pin, it was right in my left arm, and when I noticed it, the beeping got faster and louder. A heart rate monitor. Looking around, I noticed that the walls were completely made out of marble, and there was a large black window staring right in front of me. I knew those only too well. Like in the crime shows; they can see me, but I can't see them.

_Oh shit_.

* * *

_**Jared**_-

"_I'll never let anyone hurt you, I promise," I whispered, as I held her closer. It was true- she was my whole world now._

_Leaning against me, watching the sunrise through the windows of a house we just broke into three hours ago, she whispered, "Can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I believe you Jared."_

_I swung her around and kissed her tenderly, and she practically melted in my arms. I liked that, she was a strong, beautiful woman. I had the ability to make her melt. She was mine and I was hers._

"_Jared!" She laughed, pushing herself away from me and leaning against the window, "What happened if Jamie wakes up and sees?"_

"_The kid already knows." I laughed and leaned back towards her._

_But something was wrong, very wrong. The glass she was leaning on was cracking. "Mel-" I screamed, but it was too late. I watched her fall through the glass in slow motion._

_She screamed a horrifyingly heart breaking scream, and no matter how I tried to grab her arms, I just melted right through her flesh- like she was out of my reach. "Nooo!!!!" I screamed, leaning out of the window, looking down at her hopelessly broken body._

"MELANIE!" I screamed, wide awake.

_Beep beep beep beep beep_!

"What the hell?" I gasped, blinking in protest of the bright, white light that was shining onto my eyes. Trying to turn away, my right side yanked in pain. Turning my head, I noticed that I was strapped down- tightly, on a lumpy white mattress.

I was also wearing weird as patients clothing. Shivering in repulsion, I realized who must of changed me. Struggling against the straps, something pierced through my left arm like a needle. Turning, I realized it was a needle, piercing straight through, and stuck there with medical grade tape or something.

When I tried struggling again, the beeping noise got faster in tempo and louder too. _Great, I'm a fucking experiment_.

Craning my head, looking anywhere but at the bright light, I realized I was in a white room, with clean white tiles for the floor and white marble for the walls. On one side was a huge black glass window, and on the other was a simple white door, with an electronic locking system. I smack bam in the middle, strapped down, with a fucking heart rate monitor in me, under the roof of my enemies and my girlfriend's status unknown.

_Brilliant, just plain brilliant._

* * *

_**Ian**_-

"Under heavy anesthetics. We've checked his blood results. No traces of alchohol or drugs. B+ blood group. Approximately 25-27 years old, won't know for sure until he wakes up Firing Stems."

I stirred slightly, my head aching like I've just cracked it or something, _I'm hungry. Whose talking so loudly? Where's that roast turkey… What is that annoying being sound?_

_Beep beep beep beep_, it was slow and dragged out. It made me feel sleepy and queasy. I felt numb, and my body was heavy with exhaustion.

"Same blood type as No.113, most probably brothers." Another voice declared. I was so tired I couldn't even distinguish it as a man or a woman's voice. All I knew was that it drawled and sounded very professional.

_No. 113? What kind of doctors are these people, whoever No.113 is probably has a name..._

_Beep beep beep beep beep beep!_

"Heart rate's increasing Firing Stems, I think No. 111 is waking up. More anesthetics?"

_Nah, I've been awake for ages, slow doctors, seriously- and No.111- I have a name!_

"Nope- we'll let him wake up for questioning. For now let him rest."

I heard the footsteps leave, but accompanying them was a rolling sound, like a trolley of some sort.

Soon, the doors locked itself shut. _Finally_, I thought.

_Could use some sleep, my head is killing me._

I must of dosed off for a while, because suddenly someone was shaking me, gently. "Ian? Ian?" A female voice worriedly asked.

I tried to blink, and realized that the anesthetics had worn off. There was a bright light, and a shadow blocked most of it. I studied her face, pale, beautiful, slightly freckly. She had silver eyes, probably contacts and long, blonde wavy hair. She must be what, 16-17? She looked very young.

"Oh, Ian?" She asked, relieved. Running her hand on my forehead, she felt my temperature.

Twisting my head from under her touch, I eyed her suspiciously. "I don't know you, or an Ian for that matter. So please stop touching me- it's kind of weird."

Her eyes widened in shock. "I-Ian?"

* * *

_**Wanda**_-

I was sitting on a hard chair. Something bright was shining in my eyes, but for some reason I couldn't open them. I couldn't even move a muscle, everything was heavy and tired. The room was cold, and soft breezes of the chilly winds kept on blowing on me. I heard people talking, but for the life of me, I couldn't hear them very well.

I heard footsteps coming closer though. Next thing you know, something sharp was piercing through my neck. Breaking free of my sleepy bounds I screamed. I've never felt anything so painful before in my life. But it was over just as suddenly it happened.

Gasping for breath, I found that I could suddenly feel all of my muscles again. Peering from under my eyelids, I saw a polished white floor made from tile. And four sets of shoes. Two shiny black ones, one pair of black pumps and black leather boots.

The heels clinked as they moved closer. I blinked, and looked up at them. The two men both wore black tuxes, the woman in heels wore a black jacket with a neat black skirt, whereas the woman in boots wore a black dress, and she was slipping a needle into her black purse- _a used needle._

She pulled out a chair from behind her, sat across from me and crossed her legs, pulling out a black clip board and a black pen from her purse, which was black too. The other's followed suit and grabbed chairs, all surrounding me. An offensive.

"Name?" One of the men asked.

I just sat there silently. One of the other men sighed quietly and left the room. I stared after him. The rest were silent. He soon re-entered though, wheeling in a TV on a white trolley.

He then plugged it in and pressed a couple of buttons on the remote he was holding. The screen flashed black and white, but flickered to an areal view of a room. It was the footage of a security camera. I gasped. It was Jared; he was lying motionless, strapped to a bed in a white room. I fleetingly saw the room number at the top of the screen- Room 565, before he flicked the channel.

It was Kyle this time, and I was happy to see he was awake. I checked the room number- Room 728, and he flicked the channel once more.

_No! _I thought, as I saw Ian strapped down to a bed, unconscious, with Healers and Seekers surrounding his bed, injecting him with various liquids and drugs. I leaned forwards, and checked the number, Room 224, before he switched the TV off.

"Name?" The man repeated once more.

This was blackmail; Pet's memory served me with the name and its meaning.

A trade for a trade. They wanted information for the return of my loved ones.

"Petals Open to the Moon." I whispered, looking at the ground. But I suddenly remembered something. I had a new body now, a face that can't be distrusted. Jared always said that I was a shoddy liar but I could use by body to get away with things. So I looked up, my eyes wide and scared, as I watched the woman quickly scribe down what I've said.

The other woman was now whispering to the man closest to her. He then turned onto me, and examined with wary silver eyes.

He then turned back, but I heard some of their whispered conversation.

"… definitely fits the description well."

"… went missing three months ago though!"

"…don't think she's lying."

So they rounded back on me. "Petals Open to the Moon? It says here on our records that you went missing a few months ago. Explain?"

I sighed, being melodramatic, hopefully they can't see through my act. "My mother, Cloud Spinner, was very protective, like all mothers. One day, while outside- I ran into a bunch of rogue humans. They took me away."

Everyone in the room gasped. And I continued. "I missed her so much, that I convinced them to take me back to the city, when they were going on raids. And I'm finally free…"

The woman was now scribing at top speed. The others were now talking loudly among themselves, not caring if I heard or not.

"We'd finally get the humans!"

"...answers to all our questions…"

"Damon will be ever so pleased!"

I zoned back when I heard the last part. Again with 'Damon' character, who is he? The scriber finally stood up, holding her clipboard, nodded at the others, and walked out. The woman in heels sighed happily.

"Finally, Resistant Humans, in our grasp- Damon will have a stroke of happiness, I'd better go call him." And, she too, left, leaving a series of _clinks_.

The men stared at me for a while, and I returned their looks with what I hoped to be a steady gaze.

One of them sighed tiredly, stood up, walked around me and fiddles with the straps holding me down. They soon became loose and fell off. I stretched my puny limbs and slumped back on the chair sleepily.

"So what now?" One man asked the other.

"We wait for Damon's orders obviously."

"What about _her_."

I hated how they talked about me as if I wasn't there. It bubbled through my body like a wave, a new wave not very well known to this body. While Pet occupied the body, she was never angry, and when I did, I was barely ever angry, sometimes just peeved off, but Ian was always there for me. _I'll get us out of this_, _somehow_.

"She'll have to stay here, _of course_."

I feigned a yawn. And watched them wearily eye me. "Let's just let her sleep." One said. The other nodded, grabbed his things, and slowly walked towards the door, watching me carefully for any signs of deceit, before closing it with and locking it with a smooth _click_.

I slid onto the floor, and stretched out, waiting for a couple of minutes, just to make sure. I rolled over and faced the clear windows of the hall, and pretended to close my eyes. Sure enough, the men were at the windows, watching me.

I closed my eyes for ten more minutes, counting slowly in my head, just to make sure I don't actually fall asleep. When I peeked again they were gone. Quickly, I ran to the window, pressing my face to it, checking the hall for as far as I could see. And it was empty, _yes_!

Edging towards the door, my hopes were dashed, _of course they locked it, I heard it myself_! Walking around the room, desperately looking for anything, I noticed the TV trolley, still plugged in. Walking around the room again, I found what I was looking for, a piece of paper, and a pen. The paper was printed on one side though, so I used the other.

Flicking on the TV again, and finding the right channels, I was appalled to see that there were more rooms, and there were patients occupying them all. Finally finding the right channels, I wrote down the room numbers on the sheet, and looking down at my attire, (white patients robes with no pockets)- I shoved it into my shoe. Flicking back, I watched Kyle fall back asleep, Jared glare angrily at the lamp by his bed, and that… Ian was now sleeping peacefully. At least they all looked unharmed.

Searching the room again, I found nothing, so I checked the TV trolley, just the TV, wires, a set of master keys, a remote…. Wait, _master keys_? Someone must of left it there by accident.

Grabbing it, I quickly ran towards the door again, trying out all the keys until on fitted the lock. Sliding the door open quietly, I peeked down the halls, but it was empty. Closing the door with a quiet _thud_, I quickly ran towards the nearest sign, it said '_LEVEL 18, Rooms 851-900, Soul Reformatory Centre _. _The Soul what? _I thought, but just then the elevator doors _dinged _open from down the hall.

Quickly, I ran through the stair doors, and pulled out the sheet of paper out of my shoe. '_Ian- 224_' was what I was looking for, and quickly calculating my head; I found out that Ian was on Level 5.

Running down the stairs was hard work, but it was definitely safer than the elevator, especially because anyone could step on at anytime. Luckily though, at every new landing there was a sign- telling me what Level I was on. 20 minutes later, I collapsed in front of the doors for Level 5, panting and sweating hard.

Finally, I slid open the doors and peeked out, the halls were not empty, but everyone was wearing white robes, so I slid out, and tried to blend in. Souls walked past without glancing twice at me. I noticed some wearing healer tags, and others wearing examiner tags.

Room, _219, 220, 221, 222, 223_… finally, _224_. Trying to look inconspicuous, I slid out the master key chains, and started to fiddle with the keys labeled, Level 5. _Honestly_, _they should make these more convenient, by putting Room numbers on it_, I thought, desperately pushing in keys while still wanting to be unnoticed.

Finally something clicked, and the door swung open with ease. Looking around, I quickly slid in and closed it again, forgetting to lock it with my haste to see Ian. He was sleeping peacefully, with a heart monitor stuck through his arm. Immediately, I pulled it out and tried to wake him.

"Ian? Ian?" I asked worriedly, shaking him gently.

He blinked and murmured a bit, finally opening his eyes.

"Oh, Ian?" I whispered, relieved. He looked kind of flustered, so I checked his temperature. But he twisted away from my touch.

"I don't know you, or an Ian for that matter. So please stop touching me- it's kind of weird." He said hardly, not sounding like my caring, loving Ian at all. But I knew it was him.

"I-Ian?" I asked, worried now. But that was when the door swung open.

"Gotcha, I knew you were lying, Petals Open to the Moon." A female voice said victoriously from behind me.

I swung around, and realized that the woman with the heels, and a bunch more people wearing black, including those two guys were all at the door, blocking my escape.

"I knew it was a good idea to leave the keys," The man said to the woman. "Now we know her real motives. The human inside her has taken over!"

"What?" I asked, surprised and scared. But they had moved in and two men had got their arms on my waist.

"Hey!" A voice said. It was Ian. I couldn't see him though, everyone was in the way. "What are you doing to her?"

"Nothing. You just get our sleep, No. 111." The female said as they carried me out.

"Ian! It's me!" I cried out before they slammed the door. If only I saw the confused expression on his face afterwards, and the slight recognition in his eyes...

* * *

They dragged me down the halls and into the elevator, finally taping my mouth shut to keep me quiet. I watched quietly as the numbers changed from Level 5 all the way to Level 25.

When we got there, they carried me into a room where there was an operation table, and three Healers. _Oh no._

Shoving hard, I made one of the men drop me. My legs dropped and I kicked the trolley with all the equipment to the floor. I head the fall of the cryotank louder than the clatter of the equipment. After that, the had to bound my arms and legs tightly together.

The one still holding on laid me onto the operation table in a sitting postion, and one of the ladies in front of me pulled off the tape.

"Oww!" I gasped as my lips stung.

Everyone crowded over the operation table, and one of the Healers walked towards me, flicking his cell phone shut.

"Well, _Wanderer_, you're in a bit of a pickle ain't you?"

_Holy crap, how did he know?_

As if he could read my mind, he continued slowly.

"We could cut you out and sent you back to the Origin, but…. Damon has other plans. See, he knows exactly who you are… He can tell souls apart even if they're in a host-it's kind of a talent of his…It's your choice though, Origin or Earth...."

I watched him carefully and nervously. There was no way in hell I'm leaving this blue planet.

"What plans?"

**Chapter 8 after an extremely prolonged update!!**

**Yay! Lol, I confess I didn't update in a while because I was having too much fun writing Ignorant, but now with my holidays FINALLY here, I can work on both!**

**So do me a favour and press the Review button to tell me what you think, yeah?**

**xx Kate**

* * *


	9. Surroundings

**Heyy sorry for the extremely late update :P**

Per Totalus - Yes, they are beeped, indeed lol. Thanks for reviewing!

O'SheaFan - Oh, I promise a happy ending :)

TopKat90- Oh, yes the doctors are evry evil indeed, no, Kyle is not a polygamist lol, he really loves Jodi, but has come to accept the fact that Sunny comes with the package, it'll be like marrying a Siamese twin - sort of.

Princess Skye- Yes, they are lol, don't worry I wont put Melanie through that much more pain *does evil laugh.

Chapter 9 - Surroundings

_**Sunny**_-

After we got back from the river, the very silent Blake and Burns duo left to help Nate with irrigating the vegetables. I turned to follow, but Rachel took my hand and said, "Come on, I'll give you a tour when no-ones around to disapprove."

I started, but she dragged me off, back to the now empty cellar. The floorboards creaked loudly when we stepped in, but only we heard it. "Okay, so this is our main hall," Rachel gestured to the bookshelves and tables. I nodded.

"And those three, are the Sleeping Corridors, A, B and C." She pointed to the three closest corridors that led off to a series of closed wooden doors. I remembered waking up in one of those this morning.

"That," she said, pointing to a clay tunnel beside Sleeping Corridor C, "is the tunnel towards the kitchen- we eat there too. It's right beside the creek, so we can get the water for cooking and washing up."

She spun me around. "And that is Sleeping Corridor D," and then pointed to the corridor next to the Kitchen Tunnel.

"That way goes up to the river, but you already know that," She said, pointing her head towards the familiar tunnel.

"That's the medical storage room. We store the Soul's medicine there, but no one ever really gets sick."

"Did you steal those?"

"No, Burns did- but they didn't suspect him."

She spun me again, towards three more corridors with rooms. "More Sleeping Corridors?" I asked.

"Nah, those rooms are for storage. Food, soaps, towels, spare clothes, mattresses, blankets- the works."

"What about that one?" I pointed towards the last tunnel, in between the spaces of Corridor A and a storage corridor.

She went quiet. "No need to know, now come on, you must want to see your room?" She quickly asked, changing the subject.

"Uhh, sure." I stammered, heading towards Corridor A.

"No silly, you got a proper room now." Rachel laughed, pulling me towards Corridor C.

"Now, this is your room. I leave all of my clothes and shoes that I grew out of in there. You could use them now." She said when we reached the last room of the corridor. Swinging the door open, it revealed a nice, moderately sized wooden room, with a mattress in the centre, a huge makeshift wardrobe, a clothes hanger and a rather wobbly looking bookshelf.

"Wow. It's huge." I said. It was though, compared to the first room and my place at the caves, this was huge.

"It's pretty small actually- where've you been all this time, camping in a cave or something?" She smiled at me, and I forced a smile back.

**That chick is either smart, or just plain ironic. But I like her. **Jodi added offhandedly. She was stoic now.

We had both accepted the fact that we're here to stay, and even though we both really miss Kyle, there's nothing to do except wait.

**Precisely**.

"I'd let you get changed, but I really think you should wash up Sunny." Rachel shrugged, looking my battered body up and down.

_Do I really smell? On second thought, don't answer Jodi._

**He.**

"Sure, I'll just get some clothes- they're in there right?" I asked, pointing towards the cupboard.

"And the shoes are by the bookshelf."

"Okay."

Opening the huge wardrobe, I realized that Rachel has grown out of a lot of things. It was full to the top. Jodi was ecstatic though, as she hasn't seen so much clothing ever since Kyle to us back to the caves. I couldn't care less, but I let Jodi decide what to wear.

**Get the red blouse, no the white tee, no the yellow tee! Now the black jeans, no the denim shorts! Nah, the black jeans look better. Now get those Chucks. **My eyes zoned in on red low cut Chuck Taylors. _They were nice indeed_. And I've never felt Jodi so happy anyway- she made me happy.

**Clothes, clothes, clothes….**

Smiling at her, eyed the rest of the clothes, there was lots to choose from.

Grabbing them, I turned to Rachel, "Okay, let's go wash up."

-

It ended up that the wash-up shack was north of the latrine. It was at the bottom of a small waterfall and the shack was built the same as the other one. Walls on three sides, built right onto the water. Freezing cold water touched my fingers as I tested it.

Looking around, I noticed two bars of soap and two towels, there was a white bar and a pink bar, and a green towel and a red towel.

"Rachel?" I called over to her, poking my head out the door. She was across the clearing, leaning against a tree. "Which soap and towel?"

"The red towel and the pink soap is for us girls!" She called back, and I nodded. It, however was not okay with Jodi.

**Same soap? Same TOWEL? No, no, no, no, no, no, NO!**

"Don't be silly- we used the same soap and towels with Melanie and Wanda back in the caves." I said to her out loud.

**But that was us THREE, how many women live in this place?**

Rolling my eyes, I poked my head out again. "How many women share this towel Rachel?"

"Five, including you! But we change the towels every two days! It's clean today!"

Closing the door again, I began to peel off the sweat-stained, torn and bloody clothing I wore.

**FIVE???**

Shaking off the worn sneakers, I slid into the water, checking to see if anyone could see me. Luckily though, the walls spread far.

Resisting any urge to jump out of the freezing water, I grabbed the soap and began to scrub at the clothes, removing the dried up blood and the dirt. After that, I rinsed out the sneakers, watching forlornly as the desert rocks washed away. _My last real piece of the caves_.

Rinsing the bar again, I began to scrub hard against my pale skin, against many of Jodi's protests. When the foam touched a cut or a bruise, it stung, but I ignored it, cleaning out my wounds.

Rinsing out the long black tresses I saw my reflection in the waters.

**Omigod.**

_Omigod._

My usually pale and oval shaped face was red and swollen, not to mention the gashes that went from my forehead straight down to my chin, heading in all directions with crusted blood on them. They will scar.

_I look like a monster._

**BLAKE!!!? You sonofa-**

Feeling very angry and vain, I grabbed the red towel and began drying myself at top speed, pulling on the clothes and shoving on the red shoes. In fact, we were so bothered about the cuts scarring my face that Jodi didn't even complain about the towel.

Grabbing my wet, but clean, washed clothes and shoes I trudged back to Rachel.

"What's wrong?" She asked worriedly as we walked back through to the cellar.

"Did you ay that you have Soul medicine here?" I asked her quickly.

"Yeah… Why?"

"My face is going to scar." Simple as that.

"Oh."

Quickly walking down the clay tunnel, Rachel revealed a room that was stacked full of boxes on one side and mattresses on the other. Opening the curtains, she revealed a spectacular view of the river. We were underground, and this room was built, or was dug to the edge of the cliff itself, being visibly unnoticeable unless you were across the river. I peered out, forgetting the reason of why I was here, and watched as the small waterfall ran, just over a hundred meters away. It was breathtaking, watching the silver and the blue glint in the sunlight, reflecting off each other… Until I caught a glimpse of myself in the glass.

Swiftly turning around and sifting through the boxes of stolen medical supplies I emerged with three bottles- Clean, Heal and the Smooth duster. Walking over to where Rachel was admiring the view too, I tripped over a box labeled 'Deep Heal'. I dropped the bottles but managed to break the fall with my hands.

**Who leaves a box in the middle of the room?**

I ignored her. Rachel helped apply the Clean and Heal, and she even dusted my face with smooth twice to make sure.

**She would make a good doctor. **Jodi noted.

_A good Healer too._

"Wow," She gasped, looking at my face.

"What?" I asked her quickly, running back to the window of the cliff, trying to get a glimpse.

**Yay!**

I looked just like I had when Kyle bought me in. Perfect, pale and… _oh, wait I see the scars._

**Who cares? I, we look normal again!**

After that, I sat down and let Rachel work the procedures over the rest of my wounds. She admired her work for while before, "We should go help the others with lunch, they should be there by now."

And they were.

-

Everyone was busy bustling about, doing this and that. When we entered everyone looked over and was instantly shocked.

"Look at her face!"

"All healed!"

"Looks much better in clean clothes if you ask me."

Ignoring them, I followed Rachel over to where the boys were. They were also accompanied by three ladies, a short redhead, a tall brunette and a striking blonde. "Dad! We're back." Rachel called out to the back of Nate, grabbing their attention.

The redhead turned, looked at me and smiled. The pretty blonde looked me up and down, gave me a piercing stare and turned away. The brunette smiled at me too.

"And where have you been Cumming?" The blonde asked in a beautiful yet hard voice, surveying us under her thick lashes. Rachel shrugged.

Nate looked at me with wild eyes and then looked at Rachel inquiringly. She giggled and moved closer to Tom, leaving me there.

"Don't you look the picture of health?" Blake joked, looking me up and down. I couldn't help but giggle- Jodi was a giggler.

"Sunny, this is Teresa, Chelsea and Emma." Burns said, stepping from the crowd to stand next to me. Teresa was the redhead, Chelsea was the tall brunette and Emma was the striking, cold blonde. Chelsea and Teresa beamed at me and Teresa even offered her hand out for a shake.

"They aren't, well, scared of souls. I mean, I've been around since the beginning." Burns said, shrugging at the girls. Tom and Rachel laughed. Emma was still cold, Blake was watching Nate and Nate was watching me.

"It's not like you're scare Burns, you're a big puppy." Chelsea joked, and we all laughed. Except Emma.

"Come on Sunny, let's get the bread out of the oven." Chelsea chirped cheerily, headed towards the kitchen. I wasn't surprised to see ovens or a stove, because the caves had them too.

Teresa quickly followed behind. "So, Sunny, where are you from?" Chelsea asked, pulling the hot bread out. "Burns said he was from the Fire World, and you?"

"Umm, the opposite, my place was all ice."

Chelsea smiled. "Must be cool." She said. "I've never seen snow. I'm from Arizona."

We laughed, and for once I felt like I had fit in. These guys weren't all bad.

-

The dining room was a small part of the kitchen, with lots of little wooden tables and stools. After everyone had grabbed their food *I grabbed mine without an evil look from anyone thankfully, they would just sit down with their group and eat the night away.

I sat down, expecting to be alone but was shocked when someone put their vegetable soup bowl down next to me.

"Hey. Mind if I join you?" Blake asked, sitting down anyway and flashing me a smile, showing all of his perfect teeth.

I shrugged, feeling Jodi's heart pump.

**Hey! My body. Keep your mind on Kyle.** She scolded.

I nodded internally.

"So, you look much better now.." He continued. "Not horrendously scarred."

I laughed, and he watched me bemusedly. "Come on, you caused those scars anyway!"

He cocked his head to the side, letting his black hair fall over his eyes partially, watching me silently until he laughed. "You shouldn't have run!"

I mocked anger, "You guys were after me!" But I ruined it all by rolling my eyes.

"Yeah, sure- you had a guilty conscience." He said tauntingly, smiling. I didn't reply because-

"Oh, hey Blake!" A sweet voice crooned as Emma slid herself onto the stool next to him. He gave her a small smile and a feeble "Hey Emma."

She than rounded on me with the aqua eyes, flicking them back and forth between Blake's emerald ones and my silver ones. Finally, she grabbed a piece of bread and started eating. I was planning to leave, but then Teresa pushed her bowl of soup next to mine and gave me a huge smile. Chelsea put hers next to Teresa's and soon Rachel and Tom followed suit.

"Hey guys, Sunny, Blake. Emma" She gave Emma a curt nod and began to steal Tom's vegetables while he wasn't looking. I giggled at her and Teresa threw her bread at me.

"Oww!" I laughed, throwing my own bread back. She laughed and threw it but she missed and hit Blake instead. Emma hissed silently.

He laughed, "Seriously ladies, I slaved over kneading these, please don't throw them." So we went back to eating, and I couldn't help but notice that Emma was now trying to feed Blake her own soup. Something lurched in my stomach that made me ill.

Chelsea saw me looking and whispered in my ear. "They went out, like four years ago for a week. He broke it off and she never got over it. Obsessed pig." I choked on my soup and everyone was looking at me.

"Really?" I whispered back. She nodded.

**You gossipmonger. **

I laughed inwardly. _Hey, we suit each other_.

Jodi didn't deny anything, and I imagined her smiling.

-

_**Burns**_-

I watched her from across the room, sitting in that chair with all of us cornering her this morning. Nate had sent out Rachel and Tom to guard her room while we mulled over our plans. Nate, Blake Evan and I were discussing using Sunny to help with our raids. She has a pretty face, and she is timid, not exactly someone you'd expect to lie. Blake, however was totally against the idea of using her, he said that we kidnapped her anyway, so why use her? It's inhumane!

I went with Nate, might as well use her because she's here anyway. Evan didn't say much, all he knew was the fact that we shouldn't just shoot her.

It was weird though, seeing her. She was beautiful, and I'm not talking about the body either, though this body does not object to hers. I can see her soul. It's beautiful and pure, she herself is pure. I thought I saw beauty when I saw Wanderer, a fellow renegade soul back when we discovered her clan, but Sunlight, she outshines Wanderer by a mile.

And I wasn't the only one who seemed to notice her. Blake seemed a bit protective too. I watched him approach her at dinner, and they seemed to get along just dandy fine.

I cornered him though, right after Rachel left with Sunny to the latrine. I said, "Why didn't you agree with us? Sunny's a great asset."

"She's not an _asset_. She's a soul. You of all people should know that."

I had caught on by then.

"Really? You have no intention of making her your _own _asset?"

He was silent, but still managed to keep eye contact. "No. She's pretty I give you that. But she's taken. By some fellow named Kyle. And for that reason I assume you can't make her _your_ asset."

I didn't reply, but I saw the truth in his eyes. He knew. Though I was glad that he didn't know what my mission was deep down. I worked to hard to earn Nate's trust when I had been reborn into his best friend's body. Can't let pretty-boy catch on. Right now my cover is to make him think that me and Nate are hiding something from him. Then I can get on to doing my own business.

-

_**Blake**_-

I have no idea of what Burns or Nate was up to, but I knew it had something to so with Sunny. The only held the stupid meeting this morning to discuss using Sunny. And of all people, Burns agreed- I thought he had some pride in his species! I saw then talking while irrigating the carrot field, which I thought was weird because I knew Nate had cabbages, so I casually walked over to the caves right behind them, pretending to change tools. I heard;

"…and then she could…"

"Sunny's going to be great."

"Yeah, this will be fine.."

I also knew that he felt something for her, I saw the way he looked at her and back to me when I caught Sunny in the tunnels. But I didn't know he'd sink as low as putting her in danger so he could pop up and be the hero if anything happened when we go raiding.

I didn't blame him though. Sunny was beautiful, she really was, with the pale skin and the bright eyes and the long, black hair. But that wasn't what intrigued me. It was how she acted, how she ducks her head when she laughs, or how when she smiles she covers her mouth. She was witty too, making smart remarks when I was teasing her at dinner. I knew, right then, that it wasn't only the body, it was also the soul.

She was so much different from Emma, who elates beauty from the outside but is just ice cold on the inside. She wouldn't leave me alone either, always hanging around, pestering me and my group of friends. sunny was different, shy and beautiful inside and out. That Kyle guy she told me about must be lucky.

Staring at my handiwork, the carvings at the entrance to the tunnels, I decided to set my mind on finding out what Burns is up to. Plus it's getting late, and I've been up here in the forest a while just thinking.

-

_**Sunny**_-

"Night Teresa, night Burns." I said, yawning as I reached my 'official' room.

"Night Suns." Teresa said, smiling.

"Night Sunlight." Burns said softly before closing his door with a thud.

Holding onto a Chinese lantern (they have a spare room chuck full of lighting equipment because this cellar/shack has no electricity) I slid into my room and stared at it. Huge and dark, I couldn't believe that this was now my permanent sanctuary. Walking over, I laid the lantern on the floor next to my mattress and kicked off my shoes.

**Big day today.**

_Yeah._

**At least the people in this place are friendlier than back at the caves when we first came.**

_They must be really used to Burns because I don't scare them at all._

**Yeah, you're a marshmallow Sunny. Cute, but not terrifying.**

_Ha._

**…**

…

**I miss him Sunny, lots. I haven't seen him in five years!**

_I miss him too.- Sorry._

**It's okay, out of all the girls I know, I'd rather you loving him too as opposed to… Well, anyone like Emma.**

_Hmm._

…

_Do you think we'd make it out of here Jodi?_

**Dunno Sunny, dunno…**

_Night Jodes._

**Night Sunny…**

Scrunching up my pillow, I listened to some footsteps down the corridor, lied down and stared at the ceiling for a while before drifting off.

'_I watched as his silhouette disappeared from behind the blocks of our street. Sighing, I kicked up my feet and watched as the sceneries passed by on our way to the airport. I lifted the __pink carnations and hydrangeas to my face and smelt in it's aroma. Pulling out a Lindt Swiss Coffee Toffee, I savoured it and felt it melt in my mouth, daydreaming about last night, how he kissed me right before I had to sneak back in from the Winter Kool Festival..._

"_Right," Mum said, handing me my tickets to Portland,"keep a hold on those darling."_

_I nodded, shoving it into the pockets of my jeans and went back to admiring the hydrangea._

"_It's beautiful." Mum said, smiling at the flowers wrapped in a pink bow. _

"_Yeah."_

"_Kyle must really like you."_

"'_Course mum."_

"_And you?"_

"_I love him."_

_She smiled when I said that, but just then we reached the airport._

_Grabbing my luggage I followed Mum and Dad through the terminals towards the ticket and passport counter. Mum was pulling out our documents when I noticed the people who were attending us had funny contact lenses- they were bright silver. The woman noticed and gave me a sweet smile as I handed in my ticket._

"_Have a safe flight! It's gate twenty-three."_

_I smiled back at them before rushing after Mum, after all- we were nearly late. Rushing in after a group of people, we boarded the plane one by one, my parents before me. When I entered though, pulling my luggage after me, I noticed that the plane was empty._

_Looking around, I saw something poke out from under the seat. Leaning down, I noticed that it was an ARM. Turning to scream something knocked onto my head really hard and the last thing I remember was hitting the rough carpet and seeing a pair of black heels._

_-_

_-_

"_She should be waking up anytime soon now, we've just applied the Awake."_

_Beep, beep, beep, beep._

"_Heart rates picking up, she's responsive."_

_Fluttering my eyes open, I realized I was in a room, with many people standing around me. Three in Healers outfits and the rest in black clothing._

_Pulling myself up with little difficulty, I watched as the people in black moved closer and a lone figure, stepping into the light._

_He was huge, tall and burly. With silver eyes lined with gold, he reached out and touched my forehead._

"_Sunlight."_

_I nodded._

"_Repeat after me."_

"_Okay."_

"_I will gather the necessary intel."_

"_I will gather the necessary intel."_

"_I will manipulate the human mind."_

"_I will manipulate the human mind."_

_He nodded,_

"_Do you understand?"_

"_Yes, Damon." _

_

* * *

_

**Okay okay, I admit it, this isn't my best work *waits for vegetables to be thrown at self***

**But I just had to put in a bit about Sunny because we need to kow about her before moving on.**

**Okay, hate me, love me- Review :) **

**xx Kate**


	10. Missionaries

traceebby- Oh, don't worry about Sunny, she'll be fine (it says so in this chap lol), thanks so much for reviewing on all my stories!! I got your story last night, Definately upload it!! It's so awesome and original :D

Per Totalus- Hahaha, I'll upload mine if you upload yours LOL (wink, wink) UPLOAD THE HARRY POTTER STORY BECSYY! Yeah, I know I'm a total bitch for making them all suffer, yes, indeed lol.

TopKat 90- Lol, indeed, back off S/J. No, its not a spy ring. Basically not all souls are innocent, and every planet they visit they ALL have a mission. So everyone is in on this, it's just that Wanda has been moved around so much she seems to have forgotten her mission lol. (Don't worry, Wanda and Sunny are good) :)

O'SheaFan- I hope you liked it. Yes, in fact, I got all the main girls in on this Chap hehe, keep up the reviews!!

Princess Skye- I hoped you like this one!! A mix of all our fave gals :D

Chapter 10 - Missionaries

_**Lily**_- **(Current time)**

_Each day it gets colder in this Lilac world, and each day the little glittery, purple home I've been in for possibly a week or so (I don't keep count), grows smaller. At first I thought it was never ending, just this little world in the shade of my favorite color that stretched out for miles and miles, but I'd blink my eyes ad I'll see that beautifully daunting gold gate closer to me than it was before, and I'd swear I didn't move from my position. _

_It was always there too, the gate. Usually after someone is within my connectivity range, it'll just disappear and come back later, but the gold gates, it's here permanently now, moving closer with each new breath I take._

_I tuned in more often now. I'd hear Trudy, Lucinda, the occasional Doc and Candy, but my most popular channel is Jamie Stryder. It hurt to hear his voice._

"_Hi Lily, its Jamie. Again. How are you feeling? Stupid question, I know. I'm really worried Lily, about you, about Mel and Wanda and the guys; do you think they'll come back? Doc says you're getting better Lily, you definitely look better. Last time you gave us such a fright Lily, dropping off like that, but you're okay now. Just hang in there, Wanda and the others will be back soon. Today we had eggs and Sharon let me help in the kitchen, but I burnt mine Lily, you should've been there. Anyways, I wrote a story in class today about a girl and a guy. I named them after you and Wes. Lily, wake up and I'll let you read it. Yep, I'm not going to read it to you, you have to wake up Lily, wake up…" He would say. He'd always be there, to tell me what happened in his day._

_I was glad I made the decision to not cross the gates when it had opened last time. Too much people needed me here, and even though I needed Wes, I'm sure he'll be proud of my decision. _

_Oh, Wes……_

_It stopped glowing here, did I mention that? All the light is from behind the gates, it glows a peaceful white behind the gates, and my Lilac world is cast in the darkness. It's been like that for a while now, and I got a feeling that isn't going to change._

_-_

_**Wanda**_- **(Current time)**

"What plans?" I asked, trying to keep my voice still.

The tall man with the cell phone sighed airily, "Oh, it's the same one you've been issued Wanderer."

Staring blankly at the mass of people in black clothes, I managed to stutter, "Wh-what?"

He suddenly pushed me back against the operation table, "Doc!" he demanded, gesturing for a Healer to come forth.

"Check her neck. Now!"

"Oww!" I gasped as a gloved hand shoved my neck down, roughly moving away the golden tresses.

"Nothing. She's obviously just forgotten." A smooth voice replied, and the gloved hand let go of my neck.

"Fine." The male replied, lifting up my chin so I could face the silver eyes before me.

"You'll have to adapt to the human mind and turn them against each other. Simple."

I gaped. "Turn them against each other? Why?" I asked quietly, the strings of my voice cracking slightly.

"You already know the answer. Now, is it the Origin or Damon's agreement?" He demanded.

"I need to see my friends." I said, trying to make my voice strong. I didn't know what they wanted, but they didn't know that, I'll just play along. For once in this new life, I was happy with the frail host body I was in. You just can't _not _trust it. The black figures merely looked at each other tiredly before rounding on me.

"Fine. Grab her." The tall man said, whipping the door open from behind him to show a white tiled hallway.

"Oww, hey!" I grunted in protest as two of the black-clad males grabbed each of my tiny arms and dragged me out. Seeing a golden sign against the white, I craned my head to read it as they hauled me past. _'Level 25, Transfers and Operations.' _It read. One of the ladies swiftly pushed the elevator button and we watched as the little numbers flashed from 17 to 25. _Ding!_ The two men dragged me on, followed by that tall guy and the woman, the rest waited there. One of them mouthed something and the man with the cell nodded just before the doors closed.

She pressed the levels, 15, 12 and 5. When the doors opened again, they quickly pulled me to the window of Room 728. It was Kyle, and he was still awake. I watched as his eyes scanned the glass I was standing behind over and over, and realized that he couldn't see me.

"Let's get moving." The man grunted sharply, and I got heaved back through the open elevator.

The little numbers than flashed from 15 to 12. Pulling me swiftly along, they showed me Room 565, where a heavily sedated Jared was sleeping it off, and that reminded me of something.

"Where's Mel?" I asked brusquely. The people turned and faced me from their haughty stance of staring at the elevators.

"Mel?" The woman asked, whipping out the clipboard I'm so familiar with. She pulled out her pen and started scribing, looking up at me inquiringly when she was done.

"My friend! She fell out the window!" I said quickly, horror washing over my voice. "D-did you find Mel?" I asked, listening it break over the silence of the corridor.

Tehy remained silent, and I guessed the answer.

-

_**Melanie**_- **(Current time)**

The night wind stung at my injuries as I hobbled along the side of the highway. It's been nearly an hour or so, and everything had dried, caked off blood cracking here and there.

Gasping with every move, I followed a star in the black sky and made an attempt to follow it. _This, isn't, going, well… _I thought to myself, pushing the pressure on the large branch I found while back at the lot.

Hoping desperately to not run into any souls, I tried pushing myself even more, but my worn muscles keep on tensing up. "Ahhhh." I gasped, leaning against the branch, catching a breath. My head was still throbbing to the extent that I could barely see though the tears of pain. Something shone in the distance- _headlights._

"Crap." I grunted, shifting myself off the road and trying to blend in with the bushes, but it was too late, the headlights shone all over my body, but I was quick enough to close my eyes.

"Oh my!" I heard a male voice exclaim in horror as his car screeched to a stop right by me. _Thud! _The car door opened and I heard hurried footsteps headed for my direction.

Cool hands turned me around, and I peeked underneath my sloppy hair. He was an old man, probably around 60 and his silver eyes were wide as he examined my body. "Dearie! What happened? We must get you to a clinic immediately!" He gasped, staring at my bloodstained clothes. Avoiding eye contact, I nodded and hobbled over to the passenger's seat, keeping the branch with me just in case, even though it might break my heart to hit an old man.

Putting my head on the seat, facing the windows, I watched as the car sped away from the direction I was actually headed in. "What happened?" The old man asked worryingly as he drove along.

"I got ambushed. While driving just then. Another car ran into mine and they happened to be humans," I said, trying to make my voice sound fearful. He gasped in shock and nearly sped the car off the road.

"Then what?" He asked gently, "sorry if I sound rude."  
"Oh, it's nothing." I said, trying to sound as polite as possible. "They just stole my car. That's all." I was desperately hoping he was buying my story, I did look cut up and bruised enough to pull it off, not to mention the tiny glass shards in my hair.

"Those humans- we need to keep a short lease on them. You're lucky. There's been disappearances in the area, it's lucky they even just took you're car."

I nodded, watching as lights of the next town grew in the distance. It was kind of familiar even. I remembered raiding this place while Wanda was still in my head.

_Wanda, I hope she's okay. _I sighed.

He drove into the lot of a tall, white building with the name 'CLINIC' in bright, gold letters. Next to it was an even taller building. Silver, it stretched for the sky, it had many levels, and the metal sign out the front was named '_Soul Reformatory'. _The glass was all tinted ad I saw flashy steps headed towards the main entrance. Paying no attention to it, I let the old man guide me towards the bright lights of the building. Hiding under my sheets of blood-ridden hair, we walked in.

Someone screamed. "Healer Nathan?" A woman called, and I heard her heels click over to me.

"My dear! What happened?" She demanded lightly as she took me from the care of the man and guided me towards a room.

"Healer Nathan?" She called again, craning her head back towards the reception desk.

"Just wait here darling." She urged gently, pushing me through a white room with a comfortable looking white bed. I nodded quickly and she left to grab Healer Nathan. Sighing, I ran/hobbled over with the branch towards the mirror by the sink. Groaning inwardly at my messed-up 'I just got pushed off a second story window PLUS I had also fallen down an elevator shaft a while ago' state, I grabbed a plastic cup from the dispenser and hobbled over to the water filter, filling it up.

When the liquids reached my lips, and ran down my throat, it felt like a cooling river running down a hot and dry desert. I had just about four more cups before the receptionist returned with Healer Nathan. Looking around, I noticed that this Facility was much more grand than the one I visited with Wanda to collect supplies from for Jamie. Shaking my head at the obvious stupidity of bringing the one thing I'm most afraid to lose up, I saw the Healer headed over, so I hobbled towards the bed and laid down just as the doors swung open.

"Oh, my, what happened to you dear?" An elderly man gasped as they walked over. He took a brief look at all my injuries before pushing my filthy hair aside to examine my neck.

"What's you're name dear?" He asked gently as he opened a few cupboards, taking out various bottles.

"Leaves Above." I said, remembering one of the names Wanda has used once, hoping that he doesn't know anyone that's an Upside Down Flower.

"Nice. I'm a bear myself. So how did this happen?"

"I was driving, by myself, to…. Chicago, visiting my sister, when this white van ran out of nowhere and knocked my Ferrari off the road. They were rogue- and they took my car." I was desperately hoping that they'd believe me. After all, I couldn't use the hiking excuse again, considering that I have glass possibly _in _me and on me."

He swung around abruptly, "And they didn't take you? What did they do?" He didn't sound rude, just curious for the sake of curiosity.

"They didn't say anything; they just shoved me out and took my Ferrari." I said, trying to make my voice crack slightly.

He nodded, and walked over holding an armful of bottles. "You look a mess, should I send Pristine Glaciers for a change out of clothes?"

As much as I felt revolted by the fact that I might have to get changed under their roof, I knew I couldn't go anywhere dressed like this. I nodded.

"Good, after I fix up you're little injuries, Misty Canyon will take you up to the was up rooms." I swallowed, but nodded anyway.

He pulled out Clean, and made me take two, Pulled out No Pain, and made me take three and began to pour Heal on my various wounds. He nearly emptied the bottle on the injuries on my head, too. After that, he pulled out another bottle, twisted off the cap, and poured out half a cup of sparkly purple liquid for me. "Drink." He said simply. And I did, surprised as I felt the warmth fill me from the throat, spreading out to my limbs and every muscle I think I could possibly have.

When I finished, I felt much better. "What was it?" I asked curiously, still hiding my face behind the hair.

"Deep Heal. You have an interest in Healing?"

My stomach flipped. _Deep Heal? _"Oh, yes, indeed."

"Well, you're all good now, so I'll just send Pristine up now, and Misty can take you up Leaves Above." He said, standing up to leave.

"Wait!" I blurted. "I was just wondering if you could give me some of that Deep Heal to take home, and maybe some Clean, and Heal and Smooth?"

He paused.

"Just as first aid. What happened today really scared me." I added, making my tone scared.

"Right, I'll have Pristine leave you a package at the receptionists. Take care Leaves Above." He said, smiling. "And it's really smart to have a first aid kit. When you're done here, don't hang around. There's been disappearances."

I nodded, even though I knew about the disappearances already. _I'm practically involved_!

Leaning against the bed I relief, I grabbed my plastic up and poured me another serve of water, waiting for Pristine and Misty. They didn't take long though. The woman I thought was the receptionist was named Pristine, and she handed me a pair of brand new clothes, underwear, socks and shoes. She even handed me a backpack. "With water, and vitamins, and everything for your kit. I left some Smooth in with your clothes as well as in your bag, so you can fix up any scars." She said smiling, taking me over to the lifts where a pretty redhead was waiting.

"Hi, I'm Misty, and I'll be you're guide." She said, pressing Level 5 as we stepped onto the elevators. _Wow, this place is grand._

"I heard about you're terrifying encounter, you're very brave." She added, smiling. I forced a smile back, and waited for the doors to open. Instantly, what met my eyes was a huge tile floor, all with glass doors separating showers and bathrooms. It was lighted with a beautiful, yellow glow. _It's like 5 stars or something, _I thought as I examined the fluffy towels, and the fashionable sinks and tubs and what nots. "Don't worry about the glass; it goes opaque when you enter, so no-one can see."

"Thanks." I whispered, and she left. Headed over to the closest shower, I peeled off all the bloody and torn clothes, kicked off the shoes, and scrubbed down with all the soaps they left for me. Using the shampoo, I washed my matte of hair twice before it actually felt clean again. Grabbing some shampoo and conditioner, along with the non-stinging soap and some deodorant, I shoved them into the backpack with all the Deep Heal Lily could ever need and began to Smooth away the scars.

Finally done, I put on the crisp new clothes and threw the ripped ones out in the nearest bin. I only kept the shoes.

Finally healthy again, I walked out into the elevators, and pressed the 'G' button, feeling relief for once. Stepping out into the bright lights of the reception area I hid behind my bangs and smiled to the receptionists as I walked past. Spotting an unguarded handbag by the counter, I formed a plan in my head. So I casually walked up and asked for another cup of water.

"Sure!" the young receptionist said happily, and I smoothly grabbed the handbag and shoved it into my backpack. Looking around, and making sure no-one noticed, I smiled, grabbed the water, and left. Once in the lot, I grabbed out the handbag and began searching. Finally, I found what I was looking for. _Car keys._

Pressing the button and hearing the _beep beep! _I followed the sound and had my breath taken away from me as I saw the white Camry. All washed off and clean, but I see the dents and the plates. Heart stuck in my throat, I looked around quickly before pressing the button again, this time in relief as the red Jeep by it flashed. Hopping in, I glanced quickly around again, looking for Ice and his brother. Finding no trace of anyone, I pulled out of the lot, not looking out the window of the Jeep just as Wanda's silhouette could be seen at the entrance of the Reformatory Centre.

-

_**Sunny**_- **(Current time)**

I woke up to the sunlight shining through the single window of my new bedroom. Not only that, I woke up to hear shouting. Assuming the worst, I hopped out of bed and quickly ran to the wooden door, listening intently for any sounds of an invasion.

"You can't go back out there!"

"We're low on supplies!"

"You just left!"

"We couldn't finish the raid!"

"Because you picked up her!"

"Emma that's enough!"

"How coul-"

**Well at least it's not an invasion. **Jodi thought positively, while in the meantime I was feeling guilty that they were arguing about me.

_We've got to do something!_ I thought, pushing open the door to see the very crowded cellar. There were people on one side and people on the other. Rachel saw me coming and gestured for me to stay there.

Nate, Blake, Burns' and Evan were in the middle with Emma, Richard and Lucas. Everyone else was behind Nate. The blonde turned and saw me there.

"Well, guess who's finally up!" She demanded blue eyes flashing. Everyone else saw me too.

"Emma, shut up." Dallas demanded, green eyes rolling.

"What's going on?" I asked as I walked over, watching as Richard and Lucas were giving me the death look.

"We're running out of supplies. There's going to have to be another raid." Blake said evenly, watching Emma with a tired look.

"But you guys just went." I protested.

Emma rolled her eyes. "They didn't finish because they picked _you _up." She said scathingly.

**Wow. **Jodi thought. She was thinking many things about Emma, but she only summed up one word for it.

_I really don't like her, _I thought, surprised at the heat boiling through my veins when she accused me of ruining their raid.

**Yeah, that's called hate. **Jodi added offhandedly.

"Emma, that's enough, get over yourself." Chelsea hissed. "Sunny's with us now."

"Yeah, she's our friend." Said Phillip, and a couple more agreed.

Something swelled inside me, it made me feel relief and proud that those guys believed in me. I've only been here a week, but it felt good to fit in. Everyone was so used to having Burns' around that I fit right in.

Nate sighed. "Whether or not you like it Emma. We really need to go on that raid."

She pouted slightly, and sat down on a bench. Lucas and Richard followed suit, giving me looks of pure malice and hate along the way.

"Sunny can always come along. There'll be lots of us as well. Plus I trust her." Blake said to Nate. Rachel grinned at me.

Emma laughed bitterly. "Oh sure, let the girl run amuck. Next thing you know she's alerting the local _Seekers._"

Teresa rolled her eyes. "No Emma, you're the only person two-faced enough to do that." Her voice even implied a little hurt, which tells me that they have a history.

Evan choked a little bit, and I knew he was disguising his laughter. "Oh that's it with you people." She huffed, quickly strutting down to Corridor D, giving me an icy glare along the way. Lucas and Richard followed too, though they completely ignored me.

"Well, I'm guessing she's not coming." Evan said, shrugging.

"Fine with me." Rachel said, skipping over to my side.

"Sunny you going?" Teresa asked, munching on a carrot stick.

I nodded. "Sure, why not?" I wasn't even planning on escape. I felt weirdly connected to this group.

**Plus they'd probably shoot us if we ran.**

_Yeah._

**So the plan is to wait for rescue and stay alive long enough to not get dead? **(Ehh, you guys seen the NCIS new season yet?? It's brilliant! Lol, I stole DiNozzo's quote.)

_Yeah, that's basically it._

"Okay, so let's pack." Burns said professionally as the crowd broke away.

"So who usually goes on raids?" I asked Rachel as Teresa and Chelsea came over.

"Usually dad, me, Evan, Blake, Tom, Emma, Lucas, Richard and Burns. But considering you're here now, scratch the Emma, Lucas and Richard and add a Sunny." She said in a sing song voice (yeah, I'm basing her on Alice Cullen lol, how am I doing?).

"Emma is so stubborn, honestly." Teresa rolled her eyes.

"Did you guys know each other or something?" I asked her, remembering the hurt in her voice.

"Oh, we went to Carnegie Mellon together. I caught her and my three year long boyfriend _in flagrante_." Her eyes deepened considerably. "So that's how we both made it here. Went together."

Rachel sighed. "It was with Richard. She left him when she laid eyes on Blake though, poor blokes." I couldn't help but feel just a twinge of glee that they weren't together anymore.

"Should we go help with the packing?" I asked, gesturing towards the stairs that headed upward.

Rachel nodded. "Bye guys," we said to Teresa and Emma as we left. They waved and got back to making breakfast.

It was really weird walking up these wooden stairs. I've only been here once, and I was blindfolded the last time. We followed the spirals up until we hit a dusty room, definitely above ground. There was no furniture, and all the windows shown trees from the outside.

"Wow, what happened to the furniture?" I asked, staring around the vast space of dust and more dust.

"Oh, we took them down to the cellar, might as well use them. My idea." She said proudly and I laughed.

Walking outside I realized that we were in the middle of the forest, it was just an old shack in nowhere. Looking back, I saw that the paint was peeling and the roof was breaking- definately looked abandoned. The boys were all done with loading the boxes of water, food and spare clothes. They were just arguing about who was going to drive.

"You drove last time!" Evan said angrily.

"But you suck at driving! When we all feel suicidal, _you _can drive!" Tom argued.

Rachel rolled her eyes as we approached the white van. Everyone was already seated. She hopped in first and sat by the back next to a very disgruntled Tom who climbed in after. "Buckle up." He said quietly, and Rachel burst out laughing. I had to sit in the middle row, and Blake was already there. He scooted over for me.

"So first raid." He said, raising his eyebrow.

"Yeah. Feeling rebellious." I said, smiling. It was so easy to smile around Blake, and he has the most dazzling smile ever, too.

Burns slid beside me and pulled the door shut with a slam, he pulled out various fruits from a little basket he brang and started to hand them around. I got an apple. Nate took passengers' seat.

"Ready?" Burns' asked, smiling slightly, peeling the banana.

"Yeah. What could go wrong?" I asked, and Blake laughed.

Evan revved the engine.

"Let's go." Nate said in an adventurous tone.

-

_**Melanie**_- **(Current time)**

Driving along the highway with the backpack and purse by my side, I kept a lookout for that familiar desert point that was the guide back to the caves. With the Deep Heal in the backpack, I beginning to feel more positive about Lily. _Wait Lily, just hang on. _I thought over and over.

After I make it back, I'll be headed back out on a _newer _search and rescue, for Wanda, Jared, Ian, Kyle and Sunny- wherever they are. Keeping a careful eye on the speedometer I peeled the desert too. It was new to me. Every time we went on raids, it was either one of the boys driving, or Wanda, never me, so I'm not sure with my way around.

50 miles later I saw a sign saying, '20 miles, Tucson'. Feeling relief, I gunned the engine a little longer, and watched as the little trees and bushes along the road slowly disappeared. Down the road was a black jeep, covered in red dust, halfway on, halfway off.

"Who parks like that?" I though aloud as I swerved around it, taking in brief glimpses before realizing. Taking the red jeep to an absolute halt, I hopped out, leaving the car in the dirt and walked around. This jeep was the spare one that us raiders kept in a cave not far away from our 'colony'. We never used it though, because it was running out of fuel, and wouldn't have had enough to make it to the closest petrol station anyway.

And the reason it was here is because….. "SUNNY?" I called out into the hot desert sun.

"SUNNY?! Where are you??!"

"SUNNY!"

Squinting aganst the sun and th redness of the desert, I saw no-one.

* * *

**---**

* * *

_Silly me, sorry. I thought that I added something about who Sunny/Jodi's new housemates are in the last Chap, but I guess I didn't; so here they are:_

Nate- **The shady leader (Mafia Boss) D**

Rachel- **Chirpy, positive, mafia boss' daughter.**

Blake- **Sex on legs, oh, wait, umm, good guy- I guess. Best friend to Mafia boss' daughter's other-half. Sees Sunny as more than a pretty face, but sees her soul too.**

Tom- **Quiet other-half of mafia boss' daughter (Mafia boss disapproves slightly, poor bloke)**

Evan- **Athletic, other-half to another rebel human in Gail's group (see book)**

Teresa- **Extremely nice uni-grad who got cheated on by her bf of three years.**

Chelsea- **Cheery, upbeat national's soccer player (I had to add that in lol, girls can be good at sports too :P)**

Emma- **Cheerleader, sexy, EVIL, jealous ex-girlfriend (cliche, much?)**

Lucas- **Mechanic born in Houston.**

Richard- **A/hole, d/head jerk who cheated on his girlfriend of three years.**

Phillp- **Writer of childrens books :)**

Dallas- **Highschool jock, but a deep-hearted good guy.**

**&**

Burns- **Mafia boss' best friend. In on something....**

* * *

**Hey guys! So I hoped you enjoyed that :) I sure enjoyed writing it! Blergh, school starts again in two days (whhhy?????). Hmm, hints and tips for what YOU want in the next couple of chappies? I'm thinking of making it a Wanda x Ian, Mel x Jared (usual canon) but maybe a Kyle x Jodi and Sunny x Blake? It just hit me when she was saying how much she fitted in, so it might be the same situation like what happened to Wanda and Mel. Tell me what you think, yes?**

**Oh, and there's a poll on my page about what stories I should write next, you should vote! (Does seductive eyebrow thing lol)**

**xx Kate- hehe, I beta nows :D**

**Review!!**


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